■Jik, r^t^^iik )^r. ;-5^r M'.^. *'^% HBOM T2_ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/englishchurchfurOOcoxjrich THE ANTIQUARY'S BOOKS GENERAL EDITOR : J. CHARLES COX, LL.D., F.S.A. ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE FONT COVER, EWELME, OXON ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE BY J. CHARLES COX, LL.D., F.S.A. AND ALFRED HARVEY, M.B. WITH ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-ONE ILLUSTRATIONS NEW YORK E. P. BUTTON & CO, 1907 ^%ifi 'B PREFACE IN this book an endeavour has been made to gather together some accounts of the more remarkable examples of old church furniture which are now extant in the parish churches of England ; with lists of all chancel screens, and of the best instances of old altar slabs, altar plate, fonts, pulpits, lecterns, piscinas, holy-water stoups, stalls, benches, embroideries, chained books, and other details. * At first it was proposed to confine these accounts and lists to pre- Reformation days ; but it was eventually decided to give a certain amount of general information down to the end of the seventeenth century. The original intention was to include descriptions of such matters as painted glass, wall paintings, floor tiles, and ironwork ; but the plan became perforce more restricted for lack of space. It is possible that these subjects may be discussed in a future volume. The following pages have been in the course of preparation for about six years. The delay in issuing a book which has been so long announced has been caused by the desire of the authors to improve and perfect the lists of various articles of extant church furniture. They are, however, convinced that a delay of even double that period would not suffice to make the work actually complete, and are fully aware that it will be found deficient in some places, and perhaps incorrect in others. Nevertheless, it seems best to issue the book, notwithstanding its probable defects, for a postponement until perfection was attained would probably prove perpetual. . It is scarcely possible for any one or two persons' to visit and 214407 vi ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE note, even during a long lifetime, the whole of the many thousands of parish churches throughout England, and it will probably be found that some of the counties are more exhaustively treated than others. Many of the churches in each county are known to one or other or both of the writers ; in a few cases, such as Cornwall, Derbyshire, Hampshire, Leicester, and the East Riding of Yorkshire, all the old churches have been visited ; whilst personal attention has been given to the contents of a very large number of ancient fabrics in the counties of Devon, Essex, Gloucester, Kent, Norfolk, Notts, Somerset, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex, Warwick, Wilts, and N. R. Yorks. Personal knowledge has been widely supplemented by the study of standard ecclesiological and architectural works, and of all the proceedings of archaeological societies, as well as by examina- tion of a great number of more or less accurate monographs on particular churches, both large and small. It is also a pleasure to acknowledge the assistance so kindly and readily given by other workers in the same field. Particular gratitude is due to the Rev. R. M. Serjeantson and to Mr. Francis Bond for the tedious task that they both so good-naturedly under- took of reading the whole of the proofs, and for making a number of valuable suggestions. Mr. Bond's kindness is all the greater as he is himself engaged in a larger work that covers much the same ground, and which will ere long be issued as a supplemental volume to his recent great book on English Gothic Architecture. They also desire to acknowledge the kindly general help on particular information supplied by the Right Rev. Abbot Gasquet, the Revs. W. E. Bury, A. N. Cooper, D. H. S. Cranage, E. H. Goddard, S. P. Potter, T. M. Swann, and R. O. Yearsley. In many other instances they are indebted to individual clergymen for replies to queries as to fittings in the churches of which they are incumbents. Among the laymen to whom they are more particularly indebted is Mr. H. Littlehales, the editor of the valuable work Mediceval PREFACE vli Records of a City Churchy recently issued by the Early English Text Society ; and others who should be named are the late Earl of Liverpool, the Hon. F. Strutt, Colonel Hart, Dr. E. M. Sympson, Dr. Laver, F.S.A., Mr. R. M. Murray, Mr. George Clinch, Mr. F. Bligh Bond, Mr. Aymer Vallance, F.S.A., and the late Mr. J. Romilly Allen. To Mr. Guy Le Blanc Smith particular thanks are due for putting at their disposal a large collection of good photographs of fonts for reproduction. Grateful acknowledgments are also extended to the Rev. and Hon. Canon Gibbs for the use of illus- trations originally prepared for the English Church History Exhibition held at St. Albans in 1905, and to the following societies for the loan of blocks ; Royal Archaeological Institute, Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, the county Archaeological Societies of Norfolk, Surrey, and East Herts, the Field Clubs of Dorset and Hereford, and the Archaeological Section of the Birmingham and Midland Institute, as well as to Messrs. Bemrose as publishers and proprietors of the Reliquary. Their apologies are offered in advance to any generous-minded helpers, either in letterpress or pictures, whose names may have been accidentally overlooked. They are also grateful to Messrs. Methuen for their goodness in consenting to the considerable enlargement of this issue beyond the size of its fellows of the series, as well as to the multiplying of the original illustrations, and that without any addition to the modest price. By far the greater part of the letterpress has been written exclusively for this book, but here and again a few paragraphs are reused from critical church articles contributed by one of the authors to the columns of the Athenceum, Builder^ Guardian^ and Church Times ^ and for leave to cite these they are obliged to the respective editors. No one can be more cognisant of the imperfections of these pages than the writers, and they will be grateful for any corrections which may perchance eventually lead to the issue of an improved viii ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE edition. At the same time they have the confident hope that the book will prove of some real assistance to ecclesiologists, as a first attempt to draw up schedules of existing examples of church furniture. It is also their earnest wish that such a publication as this may serve as some slight check on the grievous destruction which ignorance and falsely directed zeal has wrought, even in quite recent years, among ancient church fittings, which ought to be regarded as the monuments of the piety and artistic feeling of bygone days. J. C. C. A. H. August, igoy CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE Altars— Altar Slabs— Altar Rails— Altar Screens or Rere- DOSES I CHAPTER II Church Plate — Chalice and Paten — Pyx— Cruets and Flagons —Spoons— Pax— Censers— Chrismatories— Altar and Pro- cessional Crosses— Croziers and Mitres— Alms Dishes- Heraldic Church Plate — Cuirbouilli Cases— Pewter . . 28 CHAPTER III Piscina— Sedilia— Easter Sepulchre— Lectern .... 60 CHAPTER IV Screens and Rood-lofts 82 CHAPTER V Pulpits and Hour Glasses . 144 CHAPTER VI Fonts -Font Covers— Holy- water Stoups 160 CHAPTER VII Alms Boxes, Offertory Boxes, and Collecting Boxes . . 240 CHAPTER VIII Thrones and Chairs— Stalls and Misericords— Seats and Benches— Pews— Galleries— Church Chests . . . .248 CHAPTER IX Almeries or Cupboards— Cope Chests — Banner-stave Lockers . 308 X ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE CHAPTER X PAGE The Lights of a Church 320 CHAPTER XI Church Libraries and Chained Books 331 CHAPTER Xn Church Embroidery 34i CHAPTER Xni Royal Arms— Ten Commandments 35 1 GENERAL INDEX 359 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT PAGE Leg of Altar Table, Dinton, Bucks . . .14 F. Roe. Altar Table, St. Dunstan's, Canterbury 15 B. C. Boulter. Chalice, Wyke, Wilts 30 From Nightingale's Church Plate of Wilts. Paten, Buckhorn Weston, Dorset 32 From Nightingale's Church Plate of Dorset. Bracket with suspended Pyx and Canopy '39 Viollet le Due, Dictionnaire du Mobilier. Pyx and Canopy, closed 40 Ditto. Pyx and Canopy, open 41 Ditto. Dove-shaped Pyx 42 Ditto. Canopy, Wells 45 J. Charles Wall. Cruet, St. Peter Port, Guernsey 46 Ditto. Pax, New College, Oxford 50 Ditto. Chrismatory, St. Martin's, Canterbury 52 Ditto. Piscina Shaft, Tollerton, Notts 61 Ditto. Angle Piscina, Blyford, Suffolk 62 Ditto. Piscina, Ditchfield, Wilts 63 Ditto. Piscina, Cowling, Suffolk 64 Ditto. Piscina, Trumpington, Cambs 65 Ditto. Piscina, North Marston, Bucks 65 Ditto. xii ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE PAGE Piscina, Treborough, Somerset 66 Clifford Perkins. Piscina, Crawley, Hants ' . .66 J. Charles Wall. Sedilia, Monyash, Derbs 69 V. M. M. Cox. Sedilia, Ilkeston, Derbs 69 Ditto. Sedilia, Sandiacre, Derbs 71 Ditto. Sedilia, Tideswell, Derbs . • 7i Ditto. Sedilia, Kirk Hallam, Derbs -72 Ditto. Sedilia, Southwold, Suffolk 72 Ditto. Sedilia, Rotherham, W. R. Yorks 73 Ditto. Easter Sepulchre, Arnold, Notts. . . . . . . . .76 J. Chades Wall. Stone Screen, Chelmorton, Derbs 143 Ditto. Pulpit, St. Paul's, Truro 145 V. M. M. Cox. Pulpit-bracket, Walpole St. Andrew, Norfolk .146 Ditto. Pulpit, Mellor, Derbs 147 Ditto. Hour Glass and Stand, Bloxworth, Dorset 157 J. Charles Wall. Pulpit and Hour Glass, Pilton, N. Devon 157 Ditto. Font, St. Martin's, Canterbury 167 B. C. Boulter. Font, Sutton Bonnington, Notts 173 J. Charles Wall. Font, Orston, Notts I75 Ditto. Font, Wirksworth, Derbs .176 M. E. Purser. Font, Mevagissey, Cornwall 190 J. Charles Wall. Font, Bodmin, Cornwall . . . . .— 190 Ditto. Font, Puddletown, Dorset i97 Ditto. Font, Haddon Chapel, Derbs 233 Ditto. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii i PAGE Font Crane, St. Alphege's, Canterbury 234 R. C. Boulter. Font and Cover, Canterbury Cathedral 234 Ditto. Stoup, Harlton, Cambs. 236 J. Charles Wall. Stoup, Endellion, Cornwall 237 Ditto. Stoup, Wootton Courtney, Somerset 238 M. E. Purser. Stoup, Lastingham, N. R. Yorks 239 J. Charles Wall. Alms Box, Blythburgh, Suffolk 240 Ditto. Alms Box, Watton, Norfolk . . 241 Ditto. Offertory Box, Bridlington, E. R. Yorks 244 M. E. Purser. Collecting Box, Holy Trinity, Guildford 246 Surr^ ArchcBological Society. Patriarchal Chair, Canterbury 249 M. E. Purser. " Chair of St. Augustine," Canterbury . . . . . . . .250 B. C. Boulter. Frith Stool, Hexham, Northumberland 252 V. M. M. Cox. Chair, Little Dunmow, Essex 253 Ditto. Bench End, Brent Knoll, Somerset 263 A. Gordon {Reliquary). Bench, Winchester Cathedral 271 V. M. M. Cox. Backless Benches, Cawston, Norfolk '. . 273 J. Charles Wall. Bench, East Leake, Notts 275 M. E. Purser. Bench, East Leake, Notts . . 276 Ditto. Bench End, Broomfield, Somerset 277 A. Gordon {Reliquary). Bench End, Monksilver, Somerset 277 Ditto. Bench End, Crowcombe, Somerset 278 Ditto. Bench, Send, Surrey 280 Surrey Archceological Society, Canopied Pew, Madeley, Hereford s 286 J. Charles Wall.i xiv ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE PAGE Canopied Pew^ Stokesay, Salop 287 V. M. M. Cox. West Gallery, Cawston, Norfolk 289 J. Charles Wall. Chest, Rugby, Warwicks . 293 Colonel Hart. Chest, Chichester Cathedral . . 294 J. Charles Wall. Chest, Heckfield, Hants 295 Ditto. Chest, York Minster 298 F. Roe. Chest, Cheshunt, Herts 302 East Herts Archceological Society. Almery, Rowington, Warwicks 309 J. Charles Wall. Almery, Carlisle Cathedral 310 Ditto. Almery, Wetheral, Cumberland . 311 Ditto. Dole Cupboard, St. Albans 313 F. Roe. Gospel Lectern and Almery, Chaddesden, Derbs 314 V. M. M. Cox. Gospel Lectern and Almery, Spondon, Derbs 315 Ditto. Cope Chest, Wells Cathedral 317 J. Charles W^all. Banner-Stave Locker, Barnby, Suffolk 318 Norfolk Archceological Society. Banner-Stave Locker, St. Margaret's, Lowestoft, Suffolk . . . .318 Ditto. Pricket Candlestick, Canterbury Cathedral 323 M. E. Purser. Candlestick, Clapton-in-Gordano, Somerset 323 Ditto. The Gloucester Candlestick, Victoria and Albert Museum . . . 324 J. Charles Wall. Candlestick, Hackness, N. R. Yorks 326 Ditto. Corona of Lights, St. Martin de Troyes 328 Viollet le Due, Dictionnaire du Mobilier. Bishop Frithstan's Stole, Durham 343 J. Charles Wall. Frontal, Steeple Aston, Oxon 34^ Ditto. LIST OF PLATES Font Cover, Ewelme, Oxen From a Photograph by Mr. H. W. Taunt, Oxford. Altar Tables, Powick and Evesham, Worcs. R. H. Murray, Altar Tables, Cheddar, Somerset, and Parish Church, Wolverhampton Ditto. Reredos, Christchurch, Hants From a Photograph by Messrs. Frith, Reigate. Post-Reformation Chalices, with Paten Covers . St. Albans Church Exhibition. Pyx Cloth, Hessett, Suffolk Ditto. Censers, Ripple, Pershore, and Langwith .... Ditto. Processional Crosses ; 15 th Cent Ditto. Silver-Gilt Mitre, Bishop Wren Ditto. Cuirbouilli Mitre Case Ditto. Easter Sepulchres, Hawton and Sibthorpe, Notts. Pelican Lectern, East Leake, Notts Rev. S. P. Potter. Rood Screen and Pulpit, Harberton, Devon Stone Screens, Stabbing and Bardfield, Essex, and Bramford, Suffolk Rood Screen, Shoreham, Kent From Memorials of Old Kent. Rood Screens, Handborough and Charlton-on-Otmoor, Oxon From Photographs by Mr. H. W. Taunt, Oxford. Frontispiece To face page 12 16 20 36 40 50 54 56 58 76 80 94 116 120 130 xvi ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE Rood Screen, Withycombe, Somerset .... To face page 134 Clifford Perkins. Rood Screens, Flamborough and Hubberholme, Yorks. . „ 142 Font Panels, Farningham, Kent, and West Lynn, Norfolk ,, 168 Dr. Alfred C. Fryer. Fonts, Ashover and Mellor, Derbs., Thorpe Arnold, Leics., and Lenton, Notts „ 194 Guy Le Blanc Smith. Fonts, Great Kimble, Bucks, Bishopsteignton, and Alphington, Devon, and Youlgreave, Derbs. . . ., 196 Ditto. Font, Castle Frome, Herefords „ 200 Woolhope Field Club. Font, Warmley, Herts . „ 202 East Herts. Archaeological Society. Fonts, Ashbourne and Bakewell, Derbs., and Burrow- on-the-Hill, and Waltham-on-the-Wolds, Leics. . . „ 206 Guy Le Blanc Smith. Font, Huttoft, Lines. . „ 208 Lincoln and Notts. Archaeological Society. Fonty Little Walsingham, Norfolk ,, 210 Dr. Alfred C. Fryer. Collecting Box, Holy Trinity, Guildford .... „ 246 Surrey Archaeological Society. Misericords, Cartwell Priory, Lanes., and Screveton and Wysall, Notts „ 258 Seats round Piers, Sutton Bonnington, Notts. .... „ 262 Rev. R. O. Yearsley. Stall Ends, Jarrow, Durham ,, 270 Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle. Thirteenth Century Chest, Icklington, Suffolk ... „ 292 From Reliquary. Church Chests, Wootton Wawen and Brailes, Warwickshire „ 306 Colonel Hart. v1 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE CHAPTER I ALTARS— ALTAR SLABS— ALTAR RAILS— ALTAR SCREENS OR REREDOSES ALTARS THE altar, in the mediaeval Church, was the central object, the one essential part of the furniture, without which the due performance of worship was impossible. As a result of the Reformation movement of the i6th cent., only a very few of the old stone altars are standing in English churches, though there are a fair number of cases in which the old inensa, or altar slab, still remains in the pavement, or has been restored to its original use. Of those that remain in their original position, three were high altars, namely, those at Arundel, Forthampton, and Peterchurch, whilst a few more exist in the chapels or as side altars. In England, the altar was often called Christ's Board, or God's Board in pre-Norman days, and occasionally so for two or three centuries after the Conquest. Wooden altars were in general use for the first four or five centuries, and lingered on in this country till the end of the nth cent. They were, however, sometimes of wood down to the very dawn of the Reformation, as can be abundantly proved from old inventories and wills.* iElfric, in his celebrated homily of I2th-cent. date, speaks of " Godes borde " and " Godes table." Lydgate, in his Vertue of the Masse, writes of the " Altar called God's board." * Among the Proceedings of the Alcuin Club (1899) is a valuable tractate of Mr. W. H. St. John Hope on English altars, with 36 pictures from illuminated MSS. from the loth to the i6th cents. B 2 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE The will of John Raventhorpe, 1432, priest of the chapel of St. Martin, Aldwark, leaves a vestment to the wooden altar (altari lig7teo) of that chapel. Erasmus mentions a wooden altar as standing in Canterbury cathedral. The Eastern Church still uses wood for its altars. In 1076, the Council of Winchester, under Lanfranc and the papal legates, ordered the altars to be made of stone. St. Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester, is said by William of Malmesbury to have demolished numerous wooden altars throughout his diocese, and to have constructed and consecrated others of stone. One of the formal visitation questions of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, when inspecting the various churches ^of their peculiars in Essex and Hertfordshire in the 1 3th cent., was whether the altars were made of stone and duly consecrated. The vast majority were, however, of stone, and severely plain. A large slab of freestone or marble, bevelled on its under surface, and marked above with five crosses, was generally in this country supported on a built-up pedestal of stone ; less frequently it rested on four or five legs, as at Forthampton, whilst sometimes, in the case of small altars, the table, as at Belper, was supported on brackets. The original old altar at St. Mary's, Forthampton, is very simple, consisting of five pieces of stone, namely, a pillar or leg, 6 inches square, at each corner, and a mensa or slab on the top of them. The height is 2 feet 10 inches, and the dimensions of the table are : length, 5 feet 3 J inches ; breadth, 2 feet 3 inches ; thick- ness, 5J inches. The upper edge is left square, and the lower bevelled off to the extent of 2\ inches. The existing altars, or their obvious traces, are found most frequently in side chapels or chantry chapels, occasionally on either side the entrances to chancels, in crypts, vestries, or sacristies, and one, at Gloucester cathedral, in a triforium gallery. In Warkworth Hermitage, Northumberland, the one stone altar not overthrown in the county in the i6th cent, is still in position ; it has a plain sunk moulded panel in front ; the dedication crosses are not now visible. At Abbey Dore, Herefordshire, is a side altar, supported on three stone legs, supposed to be of Norman date. The I3th-cent. chapel of St. John Baptist, Belper, retains the original small altar below the east window. The slab, on which ALTARS 3 one of the consecration crosses still remains, is supported by two projecting brackets. The mensa measures 3 feet 6 inches by i foot 9 J inches, and is 2 feet 7 inches high. The chapel of the Pyx, at Westminster, has a plain solid altar of the time of Henry III. In the I4th-cent. sacristy chapel, on the north side of the chancel, of Claypole, Lines., there is an altar slab in situ. The north chapel of Northleach, Glos., has the original stone altar in situ. The altars of the Lady chapels of Shotteswell and Warmington, Warwicks., are supported on brackets ; whilst those of the north chapels of Chipping Norton and Asthall, Oxon., rest on stone legs. In the undercroft of Bedale church, Yorks., is a small altar, resting on a window-sill. At Bengeworth, Worcs., and at Enstone, Oxon., are solid side altars of i5th-cent. date, both of which are figured in Parker's Glossary ; in the latter case the slab has disappeared. The altar which remains in the Lady chapel of Christchurch, Hants, has a slab of Purbeck marble. The side altar of Titchborne church, in the same county, has a wooden mensa with a Latin cross in slight relief on the surface ; it is of Elizabethan date, and was secretly used for mass. In the small north chancel chapel (vestry) of Tintagel, Cornwall, is a good example of an undisturbed solid altar. The old altar stone has been restored to its place in the tiny chapel of St. Laurence, of Dunster parish church. In the two hospital chapels of St. Anne's and St. Mary Magdalene's, Ripon, are the old stone altars ; the former rests on two stone legs or supports, whilst the latter, which is 7 feet 7 inches long by 3 feet 5 inches wide, and 2 feet 1 1 inches high, is solid. Small original altars are also to be found in the private chapels of Broughton Castle, Nunney Castle, and the Prior's Lodge, Wenlock. The mensa at Broughton Castle bears nine incised crosses. There is a stone altar in its original position in the tower chapel of St. Michael, Penkivel, Cornwall. The custom of marking altar slabs with five crosses is not of late mediaeval origin as sometimes supposed, for a marble altar stone of the 6th cent., at the church of Vouneuil-sous-Biard, France, is figured in the first volume of Rohault de Fleury's La Messe, Nevertheless, most of the known early examples bear -only ong Qx more crosses in the front of the mmsa. 4 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE At St. Benet's, Cambridge, is an early altar stone with crosses on the front edge, believed by the Bishop of Bristol to be the altar stone of the pre-Norman church ; it is described by him in vol. xxi. of the Antiquary. English altars from the 12th cent, onwards were, as a rule, incised on the mensa with five crosses, namely, in the centre and at the four angles. " In the consecration of altars," said the late Father Morris, when writing to the Antiquary in 1890, "a little fire is made on each of the crosses. Five pieces of incense are put on each cross, and on the lumps of incense a cross is made of thin wax taper, which is lighted at the four ends. When the fire is burnt out, the ashes are scraped away with a wooden spatula, but as the cross is incised, the melted incense runs into it and remains there, as the scraping is only flush with the surface." The five crosses seem, however, to have been always cut in the slab whether the ceremony of formal consecration was carried out or not. Each consecrated altar required a vessel of relics accompanied by a descriptive scroll of parchment, on which was also written the name of the consecrator, the date, and a note as to any indulgence granted. This vessel or case was placed in a small cavity called the confessio, or sepulchrum altaris, and the cavity sealed or closed by the bishop with a thin stone called the sigillum. Relics enclosed, according to Aylifie, were regarded as essential ; but Lyndwood thinks that they were not of the substance of the consecration. It is now the custom of the Roman Church, and was sometimes the case in England in the later pre-Reformation days, to prepare a cavity for the reception of the relics in the surface of the covering slab, which is cunningly closed with a well-fitting piece of stone ; this opening was usually made in the centre of the mensa, but near the front edge below the central cross. A few old altar slabs with such receptacles have been noticed in England. The altar slab of Barnack stone in the Jesus chapel, Norwich, now remounted on short pillars, has a confessio sealed with a bit of Purbeck marble. The large altar stone now in the porch of Collington, Cornwall, shows the sealing cavity. A granite slab of the Holy Chapel, Madron Well, Cornwall, has a cavity in the centre 9 inches by 8 inches ; but the " seal " has disappeared. The same may be noted on the altar slab of St. Robert's chapel, Knaresborough. Altar slabs at Grantham and Westborough are also said to have relic receptacles. One at Bolton Priory, with a ALTARS 5 very shallow depression in the centre, has been wrongly named as " a sealed altar stone ; " the depression in this case marks the place where a small post- Reformation brass had been affixed, when the old altar stone had been used a^ a monumental paver. But the question arises — how is it that so small a fraction of the large number of undoubted old altar slabs have any such receptacle ? The answer is twofold. In the first place, a very large proportion of such slabs are those of side or chantry altars, which were probably never consecrated ; and in Puritan fury what more likely than that the chief or high altar known to have sealed relics would be specially attacked and broken up ? In the second place, and perhaps the more important, it was a known English custom to deposit the relics in the actual substance of the altar, and not in the mensa. A stone block, in which was formed a small box or confessio with a stone lid, containing relics wrapped in lead, was found at Roche Abbey. At Jervaulx Abbey, in the front of an almost perfect altar, is an opening just beneath the centre of the mensa, whence a square stone has been moved which doubtless contained the confessio. Stones of a like character to that at Roche have also been found at Calder Abbey and at Lanercost Priory. Full descriptions of these will be found in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 2nd ser. xi., and in the third volume of the Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmoreland Anti- quarian Society, In the earlier mediaeval days the relics, however diminutive, were often in an important church far too numerous to bear enclosing in the actual mensa, and would certainly be embedded in the substance of the altar itself Take, for instance, the cases of the dedication of two altars in the great church of Christchurch, Hants, early in the 13th cent. On December 7, 12 14, Walter, Bishop of Withorne, dedicated an altar to the honour of St. John Baptist. The relics placed therein were exceedingly numerous, and included parts of the vesture and robe of our Lord ; part of the vestments of the blessed Virgin ; bones of St. John Baptist and of Sts. Peter and Paul ; some of the blood of St. Stephen ; bones of Sts. Laurence, Blasius, Victor, Vincent, Alban, Hippolytus, Polycarp, Urban, Chrysogonus, and Holy Innocents ; bones of the martyrs and confessors, Martin, Julian, Simplicius, and Joseph of Arima- thea ; some of the oil of St. Nicholas, monk of Rome ; and bones 6 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE of the virgin saints, Agnes, Alice, Lucy, Julianna, Perpetua, Margaret, Agatha, Barbara, Beatrice, and Martha. In I22I, Nicholas, Bishop of the Isles, dedicated an altar in the same church to the honour of St. Michael the Archangel. The relics were remarkably numerous, and included portions of the manger and cradle of our Lord, and of the stone upon which our Lord stood when speaking in the Temple ; fragments from Gethsemane, from the Sepulchre and from Mount Sion ; part of the vesture of the blessed Virgin ; some of the bones of St. Columbia ; parts of the chasuble and altar-pall of St. Remigius, and part of the shroud in which he rested 400 years ; and a piece of the sepulchre of St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin. It is obvious that it would be impossible to enclose relics in the substance of bracket- or pillar-supported altars such as have been mentioned, and the slabs of several that are extant have no trace of a confessio. In such cases it is, of course, possible, though unlikely for ritual reasons, that the confessio would be placed in the adjoining wall masonry. But the more likely explanation, as is known to have been the case with various chantry altars, is that there was no consecration of the altar, but that a portable super- altar was used. The huge dioceses of mediaeval England, and the difficulty of locomotion, made it impossible for bishops to always attend for the consecration of the numerous side altars so often multiplied even in our small parish churches, and of the oratory altars that abounded in manor houses. The difficulty was sur- mounted by the bishop consecrating numerous super-altars. The various names for these thin light altar stones, on which it was lawful to celebrate mass, such as altave viaticum, por tattle, gesta- torium, lapis portatilis, altaria itineraria, denote their original use on journeys, in camps, and at visitation of the sick. It was also considered necessary to use them where the altar was of wood. The small Anglo-Saxon super-altar from St. Cuthbert's coffin has been often described, and is still preserved at Durham cathedral. In the parish church of Beckermet, Cumberland, is a portable or super-altar, fixed in an oak frame within the altar rails. It is of red sandstone, and measures 10 inches by 7J inches, and is I inch thick ; it bears five equal-limbed consecration crosses, and is cracked across the centre. A portable altar slab of Purbeck marble, 8| inches by Sfg inches and I inch thick, found in a chest at Abbey Dore, Herefords., ALTARS 7 with a set of vestments, etc., is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. This collection had probably been used by an itinerant priest of the unreformed faith during the time of the Elizabethan persecution. The fullest possible particulars are extant of the foundation of the two chantries of Crich, in Derbyshire, in 1357 and in 1368, down to the actual date of the episcopal institution and archidiaconal induction of each of the first two chaplains ; but the new altars at the ends of the rebuilt north and south aisles (which took the place of those of different dedication and earlier date) were not conse- crated. The inventories, however, of each chantry begin with the entry of a super-altar, which had doubtless been duly consecrated by the diocesan. In contradistinction to such super-altars for practical use were those that pertained to great churches, and which were probably used at festivals on the already consecrated high altar for purposes of greater reverence and dignity. These were usually made of valuable stone or set in precious metals and jewelled, as is proved by a variety of old English inventories. In York cathedral there were, in 1500, a precious super-altar of jasper, set in copper-gilt, and two super- altars of red marble adorned with silver. At Westminster Abbey there were, in the 14th cent, three super-altars, two of jasper and one of marble. At Jarrow the monks kept the super-altar that had been used by the Venerable Bede, and at Glastonbury was an ancient super-altar so richly garnished that it went by the name of " the greate sapphire of Glasconberye." Dr. Rock, in The Church of Our Fathers, gives much information on this subject ; the very valuable and richly framed old super-altar, of foreign workmanship, which belonged to Dr. Rock and is engraved in his work, is now in the Roman Catholic cathedral of Southwark. When the old altars were overthrown at the time of the Refor- mation, many of the slabs were used in the paving of the churches, sometimes on the very site of the stone altar. These may be noticed up and down the country, and are usually easily recogniz- able by their more or less distinct incised crosses. It is exceed- ingly rare to find an inscribed altar stone, but at Camborne church, Cornwall, is an ancient altar slab bearing these words in incised lettering, Levint jusit Jiec altar e pro anima sua. A word of caution is necessary with regard to alleged altars, which may be of service to less experienced archaeologists. In a 8 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE few cases of early " restoration " of the last century, table-tombs were moved to the east end of the chancel, and ignorantly styled " altars." A notable instance of this occurs in the grand old church of Hartland, in North Devon. In this instance all the guide-books draw attention to the stone altar now in use. One writer says that it is the only old stone altar in its original position and still in use which can be found throughout all England ; whilst Kingsleys Country, one of the best and most popular of the local handbooks, quietly assures its readers that this altar dates from the " Saxon times." In reality it is a beautifully carved table-tomb of I4th-cent. date (of the kind often wrongly termed altar-tombs) moved to the parish church from the adjacent abbey. It was, of course, never intended for an altar, for which purpose, both by association and size, it is singularly unfit. ALTAR SLABS The following is a list of some of the places where the old altar stones still remain — Abergavenny . Mons. Abbey Dore . Herefords. Adderbury (vestry) . Oxon. Alverscot . j> Arundel (4) . . Sussex. Aston . . . . . Staffs. Aston Rowant . Oxon. Bardney . Lines. Barnby Dun . W. R. Yorks. Bedale . . . . N.R. Yorks. Beighton (in use) . . ' . Derbs. Belper . ' * j> Birts-Morton . Worcs. Bishop's Cleave (3) . Glos. Bishop's Stortford . . Herts. Bolton . . Yorks. Bottesford . . Lines. Brancepeth . . Durham. St. Breward . . Cornwall. Bridgnorth . . Salop. Brixton . I. of Wight. Broadwater . , . Sussex. Burford (vestry) . . Oxon. ALTAR SLABS of brass) in Burghwallis . Burton Dassett Burton Joyce Callington . Camborne . Cambridge, St. Benet's Car Colston . Chipping Norton . Christchurch Claypole Cley-next-Sea Collingham, South Columb Major Compton Cookham (inlaid crosses Corton (altar /// situ) Cotes-by-Stow (6 crosses Debenham . Dulas . Dunster (2) . Easington Ecclesfield . Edmondbyers Ely , . . Enstone Forthampton Fressingfield Garsington . Oilstone Gloucester cathedral (triforium) Grantham Great Hautbois Haddon (2) . Hanworth (in use) Harpole Hemingborough . Highley Holdenby Horning Hougham Howden Howell Kemys Commander Kimpton use) W. R. Yorks. Warwicks. Notts. Cornwall. }) Cambs. Notts. Oxon. Hants. Lines. Norfolk. Notts. Cornwall. Surrey. Berks. Dorset. Lines. Suffolk. Herefords. Somerset Oxon. Staffs. Durham. Cambs. Oxon. Glos. Suflfolk. Oxon. Herts. Glos. Lines. Norfolk. Derbs. Norfolk. Northants. Yorks. Salop. Northants. Norfolk. Kent. Yorks. Lines. Mons. Hants. lO ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE Kinsham . Herefords. Lackford . Suffolk. Larling . Norfolk. Legbourne . . Lines. Leigh-on-Mendip . Somerset. Lenham . Kent. Long Ashton . Somerset. Longbridge . . Wilts. Madron Well . Cornwall. Maidstone . Kent. Middleton . . Lanes. Mid-Littleton . Worcs. Mildenhall . . Suffolk. Mishay (2) . . . Herefords. Moreton-on-Lugg . 5> Mowsley Leics. Newland (5) . Glos. Normanby . . N. R. Yorks Normanton-on-Soa r (replaced) . Notts. North Somerton . Lines. North Wotton . Dorset. Norwich cathedral, Jesus chapel . . Norfolk. Norwich, St. Stephen . . . . » Ovingdean . Sussex. . Oxford, St. Giles .... . Oxon. Penkevel . Cornwall. Peterchurch (3) . Herefords. Poundstock ..... . Cornwall. Probus » Rame » Ranceby . Lines. RatcUffe-on-Soar (replaced) . . Notts. Repton . Derbs. Ripon ...... . Yorks. Sale . . . . . . Norfolk. Sandwich . Kent. Selmeston . . . . . . . Sussex. Shaugh . Devon. Sheffield . Yorks. Shottiswell . Warwicks. Shrewsbury, St. Mary . . Salop. Sigglesthorne (churchyard) . . E. R. Yorks. Solihull (crypt of vestry) . Warwicks. Stanton St. John . . Oxon. ALTAR SLABS II aced) Swineshead . Tangmere Tarring Nevill Terrington, St. Clement Tewkesbury . Theddlethorpe (2) (repl Thurgarton (in use) Tickenham . Tideswell Tintagel Titchborne . Todbere (in use) . Toddington . Tong . Tywardreath (replaced) Uffington St. Veep Warrnington (vestry) Waterbeach . Wells (Vicar's College) Westborough Westham (in use) . Weston Weston Longueville Whaplode Wheatfield . Whissendine . Whitwell (2) Wiggenhall . Wintringham (in use, south chapel) York, All Saints . „ St. Michael-le-Belfry Lines. Sussex. Norfolk. Glos. Lines. Notts. Somerset. Derby. Cornwall. Hants. Dorset. Beds. Salop. Cornwall. Lines. Cornwall. War wicks. Cambs. Somerset. Lines. Sussex. Norfolk. Lines. Oxon. Rutland. Northants. Norfolk. E. R. Yorks. Yorks. The size of the mensa differed considerably. Thus the high altar stone which has been restored to use in the chancel of Ratcliffe-on- Soar, Notts., measures 7 feet i \ inches long by 2 feet 9 inches broad ; the thickness is 6 inches, and it has a chamfered edge. In the neighbouring church of Normanton-on-Soar there is a much smaller altar stone, 5 feet by 2 feet 6 inches ; it is, however, 6 inches thick, and has, like the one at Ratcliffe, a chamfered edge. At Car Colston, in the same county, there is an altar slab 7 feet 6 inches by 2 feet 6 inches. The old altar slab of Kinsham, Herefords., is said to be of the great size of 9 feet by 4 feet. 12 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE The Elizabethan injunction of 1559 with respect to altars has been often misunderstood, and more often misquoted, in an endeavour to prove the illegality of stone altars in the post- Reformation Church. It runs as follows : — " Whereas her majesty understandeth, that in many and sundry parts of the realm the altars of the churches be removed, and tables placed for the administration of the Holy Sacrament, according to the form of the law therefore provided; and in some places, the altar be not yet removed, upon opinion conceived of some other order therein to be taken by her majesty's visitors ; in the order whereof, saving for an uniformity, there seemeth no matter of great moment, so that the Sacrament be duly and reverently aministered ; yet for observation of one uniformity through the whole realm, and for the better imitation of the law in that behalf, it is ordered that no altar be taken down, but by the oversight of the curate of the church and the churchwardens, or one of them at least, wherein no riotous or disordered manner to be used. And that the Holy Table in every church be decently made, and set in the place where the altar stood^, and there commonly covered, as thereto belongeth." From this it is clear that the injunction permits but does not order the removal of stone altars. Stone altars remained in the Chapels Royal and in several of the cathedrals. In 1626 a stone altar was again set up in Durham cathedral, and at Worcester by the dean in 1634. In 1662 Bishop Racket consecrated a stone altar at Foremark, Derbs. Instances of their revived use in the 1 8th and 19th cents, are quite common, as at Gotham, Notts., Canons Ashby, Northants, and a score or two of other examples. Nevertheless, in the vast majority of cases tables or altars of wood were substituted for tables or altars of stone. In the churches that were not under the immediate influence of the foreign strain of Puritanism, great care was taken that the altar tables should be of honest and fine workmanship. Not a few beautifully wrought Elizabethan altar tables still remain. They are usually characterized by the legs having great bulbous bosses richly carved, and by the ornamental sculpture of the rails below the actual table and those that unite the legs near the base. There are fine examples of the bulbous or " melon " legs to holy tables at Blyford, Suffolk, Breadsall, Derbs., and at Dinton, Bucks. The last, which is dated as late as 1606, is well illus- trated and described by Mr. Roe in his Old Oak Furniture. He considers it to be " a strikingly fine piece, of noble proportions." I'OWICk', WORCESTERSHIRE I EVESHAM, WORCESTERSHIRE ALTAR TABLES ALTAR SLABS 13 On the surface of this table is incised, Francis Huntts geven by the youth of Upton. Upton is a hamlet of Dinton parish. At Woodborough, Notts., the Elizabethan altar table, with good bulbous legs, measuring 70 inches by 28^ inches, has a long Latin inscription stating that it was the gift of John, son and heir of Robert Woode of Lamley, Recorder of Newark. At Halam in the same county is another excellent table of this date ; it measures 6 feet by 32 inches, and is 3 feet 6 inches high. The holy table of Townstal, Devon, is a unique example of Elizabethan carving. The four legs take the form of somewhat imaginative beasts ; there are drawings of this table in the Sketch Book of the Architectural Association (ist series, vol. iii.). At Sunningwell, Berks., is a rich example of the carving of an Elizabethan altar table, which was probably executed when Bishop Fowle was incumbent. In the disused chancel of Omber- sley church, Worcs., is another good example of an early table of this period. It is 7 feet ij inches long, 2 feet 6 inches wide^ and 2 feet 10 J inches high. The carved bosses of the legs are 9 inches in diameter. Round the frame of the table runs the inscription in capitals — Whosoever eateth and drinketh tmworthily is guilty of the Body and Blood of onr Lord. There is no date, but as Lord Sandys gave the altar vessels still in use to this church in 1572, it is practically certain that the altar-table is of the like date. Among other good examples those of St. Thomas, Oxford ; Ringstead, Northants ; Weston Zoyland, Somerset ; Broadwas, Worcs. ; Lapworth, Knowle, and Rowington, Warwicks. ; and Abingdon and Dorchester, Oxon., may be mentioned. At Haddenham, Cambs., the massive Elizabethan altar table stands on seven legs ; whilst another good one of the like period, at Orwell in the same county, is supported by two legs and brackets. There is a highly elaborate altar table at Minehead, Somerset, originally designed, perhaps, for secular use ; the local idea that it came out of the Armada is obviously absurd. The earlier Jacobean tables took a rather simpler form, and though the legs were slightly bulbous, the bosses remained plain. The rails of the table were usually well ornamented, and occa- sionally inscribed with the names of the donors and dates or suitable texts, throughout the 17th cent. The good Jacobean table, however, of Dinton, Bucks., though dated 1606, retains most 14 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE of the Elizabethan characteristics. The Isle of Wight offers several good examples. There are early Jacobean altar tables with bulbous legs at Arreton, Godshill, and Whitwell ; the upper table rail of Godshill is inscribed Lancelot Coleman, and that of Whitwell, Twil take the Cup of Salva- . ..^ ^^.^^ Yarmouth and Gatcombe are of later Jacobean date ; the latter bears Prayse ye the Lord. Evesham church affords a good specimen of the better class of altar tables of the later Elizabethan and Jacobean style. The Evesham table bears round the upper rails, All good Christians [part covered up] to imi- tate this her godly devotion tozvards the Church both in life and death, Margaret Hay late of this Parish 1610. The communion table of Burton Bassett, Bucks., has well-turned legs and carved rails with the date and initials " 1618 J. G." The altar table of Aston-on-Trent, Derbs., bears on the rail. Ex dono Johannis Hunte, 1630, anno cetatis, 35, also the crest of a bugle-horn. Two Cornish altar tables were the gift of the Mohun family ; that of Boconnoc is inscribed. Made by me Sir Raynold Mohun, 1629, and that of Lanteglos-by-Fowey bears the arms of Mohun and the words. The gift of Baranet Mohun to the Parishe, 1634. The carved altar table of North Elmham church, Norfolk, was made by Francis Floyd, parish clerk, 1605-51. It bears date 1622, and is inscribed, Christus vera vita. The uninscribed and undated ones of general i/th-cent. date are pretty well distributed throughout the country, and are far too numerous to mention ; they have usually been discarded to the vestry, to a side aisle, or beneath the tower. At Powick, Worcs., is an example of the "telescope" altar table. When closed, it stands 9 feet 3 inches long, and 2 feet 9 inches wide, but it draws out to 16 feet. It is quite obviously LEG OF THE TABLE IN DINTON CHURCH, BUCKS ALTAR SLABS 15 of later date than the battered Elizabethan legs and frame on which it now stands. It is almost certainly of Commonwealth date, and came into being after the suppression of the Prayer-book, and the issue of the Directory of Worship in 1644. When used it would be brought out into the church and fixed on trestles, and the communicants would sit round it. There are two of these telescope or slide tables in the church of All Saints, Hereford, and another at Upper Donhead, Wilts. The altar of St. Dunstan's, Canterbury, is a most remarkable and well-finished example of a late Elizabethan or early Jacobean walnut-wood table, turned at a later date into the telescopic form. It is supported by nine legs of a plain bulbous character, there are three in a line in the centre, then a single one at each side of them, and two at each end. The meiisa is 5 feet 8 inches long, but it has two leaves or wings that draw out at each end, giving it, when ALTAR TABLE, ST. DUNSTAN's, CANTERBURY extended, a total length of 10 feet 8 inches. These leaves are an obvious addition of a later date, and would be added under the Puritan rule of the Commonwealth and Directory of Publick Worship, when the participants at the love-feast seated themselves round the extended " board." The discarded altar table of the parish church of Cheddar is a particularly rich example of carving. It is of small size, being 4 feet 8 inches b}^ 2 feet 2 inches, and stands 2 feet 7 J inches high. The top was originally loose. The churchwardens' accounts for 163 1 contain an entry, "It. Thomas Smith, for a new Table Board XXVJ-." In the same year the wardens received 3^. 4^. for "an olde Table Borde." It has usually been assumed that 163 1 is the date of this beautiful carving ; but it could not possibly have been done for 2^s. The table-board of the accounts probably only refers to the oak slab or mensa proper ; the carved work of legs and frame i6 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE seems to go back to the previous century. This altar table now stands in the vestry ; the cumbersome thing beneath it, shown in the photographic plate, is the gas-meter. Particular interest attaches to the old altar table in the great church of Wolverhampton, on account of the reference made to it in a sermon by Henry Burton, a noted Puritan, which he preached in St. Matthew's church, Friday Street, Cheapside, in 1636. In haranguing against prelacy, he said — " What prescription can that Cathedral (? Collegiate) Church at Wolver- hampton, in Staffordshire, plead for her goodly costly new Altar, with the dedication thereof, within these two or three years last past, in which dedication all the Roman rites were observed, as censings, washings, bowings, copes (though but borrowed from Lichfield)^ chantings, abusing of Scripture to prove dedication of Altars and the like ? " The top of this table and the sort of dog-tooth mouldings on the lower rail are comparatively modern, but "said" to be reproductions of the old work. At Holy Trinity, Coventry, the elaborate old altar table, of great size, being 9 feet 6 inches in length, is still in use. The city annals record, in 1635 : " Edmund Owen, Mayor : in his year the High Altar was set up in Trinity Church and cost a deal of money." After the Restoration the altar tables were replaced in their proper position against the east wall of the chancel. Thus, in Evelyn's Diary for 1661, we read — " 6 April.. Being of the vestry in the afternoon we order'd that the communion table should be set as usual altarwise, with a decent raile in front as before the Rebellion.'* In many instances the Churchmen preferred to have new holy tables, and hence there are many dated, and still more undated, examples of the reign of Charles II. The altar table of Shorwell, I. of Wight, has the date 1660 ; and that of Eckington, Worcs., 1663. The handsome holy table of Mainstone, Salop., bears : /. B.y N. P., IV., 1673 ; and the well-carved example at Kirk Ireton, Derbs., Thomas Haywood, 1679. There are also various dated examples later in the century, such as that of South Petherton church, Somerset, which has small pillar legs and the date 1698. CHEDDAR, SOMERSET PARISH CHURCH, WOLVEUHAMPTON ALTAR TABLES ALTAR RAILS 17 The table of Cubberley church, Glos., has twisted legs, a style that prevailed towards the end of the 17th cent. In a fair number of cases, stone altars, or stone or marble slabs resting on iron brackets, were introduced in the i8th cent, to take the place of the wooden tables. At Steane church, Northants, a costly communion-table of marble is inscribed. The gift of Nathaniel Lord Crewe y Lord Bishop of Durham. In 1726, a large marble slab, resting on handsome wrought-iron brackets, was placed in the rebuilt nave of All Saints', Derby. Other examples, cited by Bloxam, are Bulkington, Warwicks. ; Loughborough and Welham, Leics. ; and Chesterton, Hants. ALTAR RAILS When chancel screens were the invariable rule of the Church, there was no need for altar rails. It was probably the custom to place kneeling benches for the use of infirm or aged communicants at the time of Mass, and thereon would be placed the houseling cloth, as is still the case at Wimborne, Dorset. The necessity of rails across the chancel, a little way in advance of the altar pace, began to become apparent in Elizabethan days in cases where the rood-screens or their gates had been removed. At Gatcombe, I. of Wight, were a set of handsome altar rails in their proper place, of i6th-cent. date, bearing the inscription, / ivill wash mine hands in innocency so will I compasse Thine altar O Lord. Create in me a clean heart God and renew a right spirit within me. By a distressing piece of bad taste, these rails have been cut up, and used at the top of a make-shift screen. There is a prevalent but quite erroneous idea that altar rails did not come into use until the time of Laud. On the contrary, they were in general use in early post-Reformation days, save where the Puritans, who were practically non-conformists all round, managed to hold the benefices. Williams, Archbishop of York, when a Lincolnshire minister, published a treatise in 1636, called The Holy Table, Name and Thing. Therein he observes — '^Throughout all the Diocese I live in, being no small part of the kingdom, there is rails and barricades to keep the people from all irreverence . . . and so it was well done by the Reformed Church in Poland in 1573." c i8 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE Lincoln diocese then included the counties of Lincoln, Leicester, Northampton, Huntingdon, Bedford, and part of Herts. The passage cited clearly does not refer to rails that had, as a rule, been recently erected. Bishop Wren, of Norwich, in his primary visitation in 1636, put plainly one of the chief necessities for having altar rails, ordering that " the Rayle be made before the Communion Table reaching Crosse from the North wall to the South wall, neere one yarde in height, so thick with pillars that doggs may not gett in." In 1638, it was found at Lympenhoe that " the railes before the Communion Table were so wide that dogs might go through." The altar rails of Flintham and Elton, Notts., are clearly of earlier work than Laud's days ; the former are probably late Elizabethan. Various churchwardens' accounts of the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. name altar rails. There are also some dated examples prior to Laud's injunctions. At St. Gregory's, Norwich, they were erected in 1623 when " vj greatt posts and 42 pillars " were provided to serve as rails for "ye high Altar." Weever in his Funeral Monuments, printed in 163 1, mentions that the vicar and wardens of Stow-by- Walton " about eight years agoe, in making a Raile about the Communion Table, pulled downe the Toomb of William Spelman Esq. to make roome for the Raile and Communicants." In the Calendar of State Papers, under the year 1632, there is a specimen of some scurrilous verses written against the parson of St. Nicholas, Colchester, for having railed in the communion table. At Maids-Moreton, Bucks., the altar table is dated 1623, and the altar rails were undoubtedly erected at the same time ; whilst at Burton Dassett, Warwicks., where the altar table with well- turned legs bears the year 161 8, there used to be rails of the same date. The rails across the chancel of the little church of Barton-le- Street, Yorks., were inscribed The Guifte of John Slingsby, 16 10; they disappeared when the church was rebuilt in 1870. The altar rails of Langley Marsh, Bucks., are dated 1625. Altar rails that may fairly be termed Laudian, or of the latter part of Charles I.'s reign, still remain in situ in some churches up and down the country ; but the " restoration " fever of last century is responsible for the destruction of many handsome and seemly examples, which were infinitely more dignified and useful than the ALTAR RAILS 19 cast-iron standards and oak or brass rail of modern church furnishers. Among churches where Laudian rails are to be noticed in their proper place may be mentioned Froyle and Winchfield, Hants ; Ratcliffe-on-Soar and Langar, Notts. ; Knipton, Leics. ; Kings- thorpe, Northants ; Lingwood and Burlingham St. Edmund, Norfolk ; Studley, Warwicks. ; Hunsdon, Herts ; and St. Martin, Talland, and Lanteglos, Cornwall. But where Laudian rails are still extant in our churches, they have usually been moved and put to some more or less foolish and inappropriate use. Thus at Potter Heigham, Norfolk, they have been cut in two and placed in front of the quire seats ; whilst at Monk Sherborne, Hants, they have quite lately been taken out of the chancel and re-erected in front of the ringers' platform at the west end of the church. These rails exist in the Northampton- shire churches of Duddington, Creaton, and Gretton, but in each case put to some inappropriate use ; whilst at Wellingborough, in the same county, a good set of Laudian altar rails may be seen in front of a music gallery in a public-house singing-room ! By far the most elaborate and beautiful Laudian altar rails are those of Winchester cathedral. By a most unfortunate lack of good taste, these rails have been moved from before the high altar and are now to be seen in the Lady chapel. With regard to the position of the altar rails, there are various ofificial presentments of Puritan clergy extant made by church- wardens early in the 17th cent, among the archidiaconal records at Ely and Chelmsford, objecting to rails being placed round three sides of the "altar," instead of across the chancel from north to south. In the Laudian days archidiaconal and episcopal instructions for rails being placed across the chancel are common. In one or two cases the three-sided rails have survived, of which there is an excellent example at Poynings, Kent. At Ermington church, Devon, the Communion Table is six or seven feet from the east wall and surrounded by massive bulbous balustrades, c. 1600. At Dartmouth, until recently, the altar was actually surrounded with seats, and a like Puritan survival remained at Deerhurst and at Winchcombe, Glos., until about 1870. At Langley chapel, Salop., now disused, the Puritan arrangement with seats round the Holy Table is still extant ; it is so illustrated by Bloxam (iii. 175). When episcopal rule was restored in 1660, various churches 20 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE were re-supplied with rails. A common design of this period is the spiral rail. Rails temp, Charles II. of this character are met with here and there, more particularly in the west of England. They may be noticed at Long Sutton and Bramley, Hants ; at Thurne, Norfolk ; at Cubberley, Glos. ; and at the four North Devon churches of Parkham, Bradworthy, West Putford, and Milton Damerel. By some experts in furniture, it is con- sidered that this spiral treatment is later than the time of Charles IT., and the spiral rails of Lewknor church, Oxon., which were dated 1699, are cited as evidence. We believe, however, that the fashion prevailed from 1660 onwards. ALTAR SCREENS OR REREDOSES It was usual if not invariable to place behind the altar some special background, whether hangings of drapery, paintings on wall or panel, or some sort of erection of masonry. The earliest existing English reredoses are the mural paintings on the west faces of the piers in the nave of St. Albans, of Norman date, and the two well-known stone reliefs at Chichester of the same period were probably intended to serve the like purpose ; but most of the existing altar screens belong to the second half of the 14th cent, or later periods. In cathedrals and great monastic or collegiate establishments, the reredos to the high altar generally stood free, but in parish churches and in chapels and behind minor altars the wall itself was treated as the reredos, sometimes architecturally, in other cases by drapery or paintings. For purpose of description these reredoses may be divided into those of stone and those of panel, whether English or otherwise. Masonry reredoses were either free standing or attached. The Free Standing may be— Retahles or High Altar Screens. — Of these there are six good examples still existing in England, namely, those at Winchester, St. Albans, Southwark, Ottery St. Mary, Christ- church, and Milton. They resemble the Spanish retables, and may be adopted from those of that country, or more probably may have suggested them. These screens are all alike, in that they consist of lofty walls of masonry enriched with tabernacle work, but of the six, those of Winchester and St. Albans are the finest REREDOS, CHRIST CHURCH, HANTS ALTAR SCREENS OR REREDOSES 21 examples. These are almost exactly alike, and are no doubt by the same artist: both have the great central cross, and the same niche arrangement, and in both the great niches are separated by niches adorned by tabernacle work. In each case there are two doors, one on each side of the altar. The statues are all modern. The example at St. Saviour, Southwark, is very similar, but some- what smaller and flatter in treatment ; it is plainer, not possessing the tabernacle work between the niches, and the place of the central cross is filled by a niche ; its three tiers are separated by cornices of angels ; the similar cornice which crowns the whole is modern. That at Christchurch is smaller, but equal in design to any : it has the advantage of preserving most of its sculpture, all the figures in the small niches and the great central group, representing the tree of Jesse, being ancient ; like the previous example, it has two doors. That at Ottery is earlier in date than any : it is smaller and without doors ; it has below a row of panels and above three very broad niches separated by tall compositions of tabernacle work and finished by a projecting cornice, enriched by armorial bearings, and crested. The example at Milton is similar in size and proportion, but its architectural treatment is different ; it bears an inscription with the date of its erection, A.D. 1492. The Ottery example is attributed to Grandison {c. 1350); the others all date from about 1500. In Southwark, Milton, and Christchurch the screen is set back to the eastern extremity of the presbytery, at Winchester and Ottery it stands one bay, and at St. Albans a bay and a half forward. Similar in effect, though not in construction, is the reredos at All Souls' College, Oxford, where the east wall is covered from floor to roof with tabernacle work. The Lozv Free-standing Reredos. — The altar screen at West- minster, separating the presbytery from the Confessor's Chapel, is similar to the members of the last group, except in height ; it is earlier in date than most of the former, but still Perpendicular, probably about the end of the 15th cent. ; its west face is modern, but the back, much shattered, is original. Its doors are large in proportion ; it is only one stage in height, and has large niches on either side of the doors ; its cornice is a band of sculpture representing scenes from the life of the Confessor. The rood screen at St. Albans also serves the purpose of a reredos to the nave altar : its arrangement is similar to the last ; 22 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE it has two doorways with panelling above. Between the doors, above the altar, is a row of panel, with a range of seven lofty niches above, and external to the doors two similar niches, one on each side ; a light crested parapet covers the whole. At Great Malvern is a reredos which is probably unique. It is composed of two walls, one forming the segment of a circle, and the other its chord, the convexity of the curved position being toward the east. The actual reredos is formed by the straight wall or chord. This is quite flat, finished by a cresting and pierced by two doors which lead to the narrow enclosed space. The west face of this wall is completely covered with encaustic tiles, and the segmented portion, unrelieved by carving or moulding, is also, though not so profusely, decorated with tiles. At Beverley and Selby there are detached altar screens of 14th- cent. date, which resemble rather the solid or structural rood screens in that they are of considerable depth, and form above roomy galleries. In each case the posterior surface is, curiously enough, more beautiful than the anterior, which, however, perhaps in neither case shows its original arrangement. At Beverley it ^is simply panelled, a modern restoration which claims to be faithful, and the panels have the ungraceful peculiarity that they become narrower toward the centre. The Selby screen extends across the quire one bay from the east end, and is returned westward on both north and south sides for one bay. The treatment toward the altar is peculiar. The eastern and northern sides were covered in the Perpendicular period with wooden presses for vestments, with sliding panels for doors, and with a narrow locker for the processional cross, while the south has four sedilia with rich canopies, of the same period. The arrange- ment has been altered recently on its east face by the introduction of a modern carved reredos. These free-standing reredoses, though very rare, are not quite unknown in parish churches. Examples are to be found at Tideswell and Sawley, Derbs. ; at Westleton, Suffolk ; and South Petherton, Somerset. Open Reredoses. — At Durham the reredos is the finest piece of open tabernacle work in the kingdom. It is of late Decorated or transitional work (1373-80), and fills the arch, separating the quire from the Nine-altars to the height of about 30 feet, and is returned from one bay on each side to form four sedilia. ALTAR SCREENS OR REREDOSES 23 Attached Reredoses. — In smaller churches, and in aisles, chapels, and chantries of the larger ones, the wall itself at the back of the altar was treated as a reredos, either by arcading, panelling, or by a sculptured table let into the wall. An early example is to be seen in Chichester cathedral, where, in the outer aisle of the nave, there is a perfect though small example of Early English arcading, and traces of two others. The finest example is at the east end of Bristol cathedral. It presents three lofty masonry-work ogee heads, crocketed and foliated, the interior enriched with gilt diaper. They are separated by canopied niches or panels, the spandrels occupied by armorial shields, finished by a carved cornice with light open-work rail ; this dates from the beginning of the 14th cent., but was not finished till c. 1500. Another fine example is at Ludlow, which preserves some of its original statuary, and has two doors leading to an eastern sacristry beyond. Two other 15th- cent examples on a large scale, preserving some of their original sculpture, are to be seen in the Lady chapel and in Tanner's chantry of St. Cuthbert's, Wells. Other examples are to be seen in the side chapels of Henry VII.'s chapel, Westminster, in the north choir aisle of Bristol cathedral, and in the Mayor's chapel at the latter city. At Sedgeberrow, Worcs., the reredos consists of three large canopied niches extending the whole width of the five-light east window, the centre niche being raised considerably above the side ones. At Smisby, Derbs., the centre of the three- light east window of the chancel, c. 1 360, is filled up with a canopied niche, apparently part of the original design. A striking feature of the church of Great Billing, Northants, is the large niche in the east wall of the south aisle, between two smaller ones ; the three niches are surmounted by crocketed ogee canopies of I4th-cent. date. Similar examples are found at Solihull, Oxford St. Michael, and various other churches. A simple but very elegant and perhaps unique arrangement is that at Clapton-in-Gardano, Somerset. This is of the I5th-cent. date, but early English capitals are very happily used in it. It consists of a shelf running right across the chancel, supported by a slender circular shaft on each side of the altar, whose caps and bases are well-carved Early English capitals. Above the shaft the shelf is brought forward to form brackets for two candlesticks, which fortunately survive. In several churches are to be found tables of stone sculptured in relief, which were probably intended as reredoses. They are 24 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE generally of alabaster, often coloured and gilded, and of 1 5th-cent. date, but they occur at all periods, the earliest being the two well- known Norman panels at Chichester. Other important examples are those of Long Melford, Suffolk ; Yarnston, Oxon. ; and Wellington, Somerset, the last now in the Taunton Museum. The pietas of Breadsall and Battlefield may have served as reredoses to side altars. Panels or fragments of panels of sculptured alabaster, the majority of which have doubtless formed parts of reredoses, exist in many other churches ; several of them have been found during recent restorations. Dr. Bensly described the three remarkable series of sculptured alabaster panels at Norwich ((i) Bishop's palace, (2) church of St. Peter Mancroft, (3) church of St. Stephen) in Norfolk Archceologia, xi. 352-8. Mr. St. John Hope, in 1890, gave a thorough paper on the alabaster panels of St. John Baptist's Head {Archceologia, Hi. 669-708). Additional examples occur at the churches of Buckenham, East Rudham, and Mulbarton, Norfolk ; Milton and Whittlesford, Cambs. ; Bark way, Herts (remains of two groups) ; Freckenham, Suffolk ; White Waltham, Berks. ; Broughton, W. R. Yorks. ; and Lost- withiel, Cornwall. All the mediaeval worked alabaster came from Chellaston, Derbs. ; it seems to have been chiefly carved at Nottingham. At the British Museum are a considerable number of these old English alabaster panels, tables, or retables ; they include three Heads of St. John Baptist, three Holy Trinities, and one each of the following subjects : Annunciation, Nativity, Adoration of Magi, Last Supper, Flagellation, Resurrection, Assumption, Coronation of B.V.M., Destruction of Sodom, Martyr- dom of a King, and two differently treated Dooms. There are also at the Museum the lower halves of three broken panels of small alabaster subjects of superior finish, which were found in the church of Kettlebaston, Suffolk, in 1883. Wooden reredoses are rarer, but painted panels used for the purpose are to be found at Westminster, Gloucester, Norwich cathedral, and at the church of SS. Simon and Jude in the same city, at Winchester, Romsey, and a few other places. "The most beautiful thirteenth-century painting in England," says Mr. Lethaby, in his charming Westminster Abbey and the King's Craftsmen (1906), "is the Westminster altar retable, now in the Jerusalem Chamber. It is decorated with glass inlays and ALTAR SCREENS OR REREDOSES 25 jewels, and is made to resemble a piece of enamelled gold work." Mr. Lethaby pronounces this reredos — termed by him retable — to be English work. In the midst stands our Lord in majesty between the Blessed Virgin and St. John. The small intermediate panels contain beautifully executed miniatures of the miracles. One of the end panels represents St. Peter, and the other one, now destroyed, was probably St. Paul. The field between the panels is beautiful gesso work. It was probably wrought by Master Waller, " King's painter " to Edward I. The panel-painted Norwich reredos, c, 1380, is of remarkable interest and of undoubted English workmanship. It is 8 feet 6\ inches long by 2 feet \o\ inches in height. It was found in the cathedral church about 1850, having been long in use, in a reversed position, as a table top. The paintings represent five scenes in the life of our Lord, namely, the Scourging, the Carrying of the Cross, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension, with raised grounds of gesso work. The frame is decorated with some banners of the probable donors, or in commemoration of some more substantial offering made by them. The banners include those of Bishop Henry le Despenser, Stephen Hales, Sir Thomas Morieux, and others who were concerned in suppressing the great insurrection of 138 1. It is not therefore unreasonable to suppose that the reredos was a thankoffering. There is a facsimile of this in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The triptych form is very rare in this country, but examples are to be found at Sherborne (hospital chapel), Burford, Salop., and St. Cross, Winchester. The great wooden figure still existing at Abergavenny was part of the sculptured reredos representing the tree of Jesse. At the east end of the north chancel chapel of Worstead, Norfolk, are two large pedestals for images. The altar pace between them retains its original elevation. Above where the altar stood is the delicately painted wooden framework of a former reredos, a most interesting and unusual survival. There are a few old instances of a shelf behind the altar — termed in modern days a retable — remaining in English churches. At Grantham there is a low stone shelf, 5 J inches wide, and 6 inches above it is another shelf in the window-sill. At the east end of the south aisle of Cold Overton church, Leics., there is an 26 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE altar shelf enriched with moulding and carving, and clearly intended to be seen. There are remains of a shelf over the chantry altar within the grate of the tomb of Henry VII., in his chapel at West- minster Abbey. The following is a list of reredoses — it makes no claim to be exhaustive — arranged under counties : — Beds. — Arlesey, Blunham (sculptured panels preserved at the rectory), Eaton Bray. Berks. — Ardington (north aisle), Drayton, Fifield. Cambs. — Ely, Lady Chapel, Harlton. Chester. — At Bunbury, two altar pieces or reredoses came to light during restoration in 1865. The one in the north chapel is 10 feet long, and has a frieze of carved foliage 9 inches deep; the other in the south chapel is a mural painting, 7 feet 4J inches long and 8 inches high, representing Christ rising from the tomb. Derbs. — Sawley^ Tideswell. Devon. — Exeter, Cathedral — Lady Chapel and Chantry Chapels; Exeter, St. Mary Steps, Ottery St. Mary (retable, 14th cent.). Dorset. — Milton Abbey (retable 1492), Rampisham (fragment) ; Sherborne, Hospital (triptych). Durham. — Durham Cathedral, c. 1380. Gloucester. — Bristol, Cathedral j Bristol, Mayor's Chapel ; Gloucester Cathe- dral, (i.) painted panel in triforium, (ii.) Lady Chapel, (iii.) and (iv.) fragments in chapels ; Northleach (battered remains of an elaborate one, 7 inches below and 4 inches above), Notgrove. Hants. — Christchurch^ (i.) retable, (ii.) in Lady Chapel ; Winchester (i.) retable, (ii.) painted panel in feretory, (iii.) in Langton's Chapel, and (iv.) in Wainfleet's Chantry ; Winchester, College. Herefords. — Kynnersley, sculptured rood (oak). Herts. — St. Albans, retable, and several painted on west faces of nave piers; Great Munden (south aisle), Oxhey (Jacobean), Stevenage (oak), Wheathampstead (north transept). Kent. — Smarden . Lines. — Fiskerton. J//^^/' There are various records as to similar special inscriptions on altar vessels that are no longer extant ; it will suffice to cite two instances. Lincoln Minster possessed a chalice which had been given to that church by William of Wykeham ; on it was inscribed — Memoriale domini Willelini Wikehm. In 1498, Anne, Lady Scrope, of Harling, bequeathed " To the priory of Chacombe a chalis of iiij", and my husbandes name Sir Robert and myn, upon the foote, for a remembrans to pray for us." PYXES 39 PYXES Although there does not seem to have been a definite rule in this country as to the place of preservation of the Reserved Sacra- ment, the general English usage was undoubtedly to place it in a BRACKET WITH SUSPENDED PYX (DOVE) AND CANOPY 40 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE Pyx, or box of wood, metal, or ivory, which was then suspended in front of the Altar, in a hanging receptacle usually termed the tabernacle, and sometimes only the canopy. A crane or pulley was so arranged over the altar as to permit of the ready raising or lowering of the pyx, which was suspended by a chain or cord attached to a ring on its top. Above the pyx was hung the canopy, a circular tent-like construction, formed of some costly fabric, which was generally attached to a ring and ornamental crown of metal. This custom of suspending the pyx was also used in the Gallic Church, and the accompanying illustrations from French sources explain the method of suspension, and the nature of the pyx and canopy, far better than any mere verbal description. Pre-Reformation wills bear ample evidence to the zeal displayed for the renewal and beautifying of the pyx canopy. In 1500 a jl bequest was made to the church of Walberswick, Suffolk, to provide " a canope over the hygh awter welle done with our Lady and iiij aungelys and the Holy Ghost [i.e. the dove] goyng upp and down v/ith a cheyne." Faversham church, Kent, pos- sessed in 1 5 12 "a canopy for the Sacrament of crymson sarsenett with knoppis of golde and tacellys of sylke." The pyx cloth of St. Mary-at-Hill, London, in 1496, was fringed with gold and had " knoppis of golde & sylke of Spaynesshe mayking." Whenever early wills are consulted the devotion of the faithful to any form of enrichment about the Blessed Sacrament becomes obvious. Thus, the Cfj[jY\ following occur in a group of Northamptonshire !I>J bequests: — .p PYX CANOPY, CLOSED " To mendynge the canopye and blessed Sacrament of the aulter xii^." (Holcot) ; " towards the maintenaunce of a canopye over the hie aulter, iiij^." (Daventry) ; " to the sacrament of the aulter to by a canopye xs" (Great Billing) ; ** a canope to hang over the holy & blessyd Sacrament" (Brafield). The references in the highly interesting records of the church of St. Mary-at-Hill contain various references to the repairs of the pyx pulley, the pyx rope, and the pyx plum ; the last of these was PYX CT.OTH, HESSPZTT, SUFFOLK PYXES 4it the plum of lead which acted as a counterpoise to the weight of the suspended pyx. In the roof of the chancel of West Grinstead, Sussex, there may still be noticed a rude kind of lever-balance of wood, which evidently served for the purpose of raising and lower- ing the pyx. Roof-pulleys in the apex of the nave roof immediately in front of the chancel arch are to be noticed in several churches, particularly in East Anglia, as at Wissett, Ubbeston, and Wyverstone. These are sometimes wrongly pointed out as Sacrament pulleys ; PYX AND CANOPY, OPEN but of course in this position they served for the suspension of the " rowell," or circle of lights in front of the Rood. Immediately over the suspended pyx there also hung a white cloth of fair linen or lawn, which had in the centre a round hole for the passage of the ring and chain. The churchwardens' accounts of St. Mary-at-Hill for 1529-30 contain an entry of the payment of 2d. for " wasshyng and starchyng of the pix clothe.'* There is a highly interesting survival of an English pyx cloth preserved in the church of Hessett, Suffolk. It is of a square shape, measuring 2 feet 4 inches, made of linen, worked into a pattern by the with- drawal of some threads and the knotting of others. Around it is a silk fringe of rose and yellow, i inch wide, the colours alternating in the space of i J inch. At one corner a gilt wooden ball is still suspended by a tassel of silk, of the same colour as the fringe ; the other three balls have become detached. In the centre is a round hole, more than an inch wide, bound with silk ribbon that shows i inch on each side. One of the most usual forms that the actual 42 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE pyx took in early days was that of a dove, which was often beautifully made of gold or silver and richly enamelled. This form appears to have been commoner in the Gallican than the English Church ; but there is a reference to it in an inventory of the cathedral church of Salisbury of the year 1222. Bishop Canti- lupe, of Worcester, ordered, in 1240, that the Eucharist should be reserved in a pyx of silver, ivory, or Limoges enamel {de opere Lenovidicd). An inventory of the chapel of Hurst, Berks., of the year 1220, makes mention of a pyx suspended over the altar of Limoges enamel. The more usual English shape seems to have been of a circular form, with dome-cover surmounted by a cross and ring. An old one of this description, richly enamelled, is illustrated in the Archceological Journal iox 1846 (ii. 167). A most interesting example of a pyx was found in the parish of Exning, near Newmarket, Suffolk, buried in the earth, a little distance from the church. With it were found altar candlesticks and sacring bells, so that there could be no doubt that they repre- sented some of the altar furni- ture hidden to escape the con- fiscation of Edward VI.'s commissioners. This pyx is of latten and in the form of a covered cup, surmounted by a conical spire, which is crowned with a crucifix. The height is 11 inches, and the diameter of the cup 4I inches. Round the cover is engraved in large characters. Magnificat ai'a—''My soul doth magnify." At the top of the cross is a ring and a link of a chain by which it had been suspended, and there is another small ring under the hexagon foot of the cup. There is a lock to the cover. Its date is pro- bably of the last half of the 15th cent. There is, however, just some slight evidence that the method of Reservation occasionally followed the Italian fashion of using a small locker immediately over or on the high altar. In 1466 there was " j coffyr for to keep the Sacrament on the hygh auter " at the DOVE-SHAPED PYX PYXES 43 church of St. Stephen, Colman Street; and in 1547 the church- wardens of St. Margaret, Westminster, is. ^d. for the making of " a little coffer upon the hie altar for to set in the sacrament." It has also been conjectured — but we are not aware of any evidence to support such an idea — that an almery in the north wall of the chancel was sometimes used in English churches for Reservation. The occurrence of "Sacrament Houses," of the 15th and i6th cents., in this position in the churches of Scotland, is well known. At Warkleigh, Devon, is a remarkable box of oak richly painted and gilded. The base is a solid piece of oak 7J inches by y\ inches ; it is richly moulded except on one side, which is cut flat to allow it standing against the wall. Into this base, which is 2 1 inches thick, the three oak sides are morticed. The front is a door on iron hinges, and a lock was its original fastening. The interior is 6f inches high, and the square of the box is 4^ inches by 4^ inches, so that it could only have held a small ciborium. At the top the two sides rise slightly above the roof, possibly to serve as a protection for the base of the actual pyx when placed for devotion on the top of the box. The painting is in fair preser- vation, and is in oils. The front, back, and sides are green within a vermilion border, and in the centre of each is a jewelled ring of gold. Within these rings on door and back are five-leaved ver- milion roses etched in with black. On the sides are stars of eight rays in vermilion on a white ground. Each circle or ring is girt with a wreath of alternate white and red leaves, and the corners of the box are cusped with white, and within the cusps are gold roses of four leaves. There is a coloured plate and description of this box in the Proceedings of the Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society (N.S. V. 126-130), where it is definitely assumed to be a pyx case that stood above the altar. But the far more probable solution is that the box was merely used for containing the metal pyx during the rites associated with the Easter Sepulchre. Among other mistaken ideas as to supposed pyxes may be mentioned a curiously shaped circular silver cup, of 15 12-13, at the church of Wymes- wold, Leics., and a circular wooden iron-bound box with three locks in a church at Bristol. The true pyx was always provided with a single lock and key. At the episcopal visitation of his diocese made by Bishop Waltham of Salisbury, in 1393, one of the questions asked in every church was as to the condition of the locks and keys on three pieces of 44 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE church furniture which were always to be kept locked, namely, the pyx, the chrismatory, and the font. Many instances might be cited as to the beautiful workmanship and considerable sums lavished on pyxes, particularly towards the eve of the Reformation. The silver pyx of St. Mary-at-Hill bore a small Rood with attendant figures on its summit. Thomas Doddington, of All Saints, Northampton, leaves, in 1530, £10 in money or plate to make a pyx for the Sacrament, and requests that his brother (who was probably a working goldsmith of the ,town) should "make the said pix after such a goodly manner as he can devyse." Parishioners often united their contributions to procure a worthy vessel ; thus Henry Godwin, of Irchester, leaves, in 1526, 40s. "towards the bying and purchasing of a pyxe of sylver & gylte to ley the blessed Sacrament or body of our Lord Jhesu Cryste, there to remain for ever." No account of English pyxes, however brief, should leave un- noticed the generosity in this respect of Henry VII., as is certified by the following clause in his last will : — " Forasmoche as we have often and many tymes, to our inwarde regrete and displeasure, seen in diverse and many Churches of cure Reame, the holie Sacrament of the Aulter kept in ful simple and inhonest Fixes, specially Fixes of copre and tymbre ; we have appointed and commaunded the Tresourer of our Chambre, and Maistre of our Juellhouse, to cause to be made furthwith Fixes of silver and gilte, in a greate nombre, for the keping of the holie Sacrament of th' Aultre, after the faction of a Fixe that we have caused to be delivered to theim, every of the said Fixes to be of the value of iiii/., garnished with our armes, and rede Roses and Foortcolis crowned : of the which Fixes we woll, that to the laude and service of God, th' onour of the holie Sacrament of th' Aulter, the weale of our soule, and for a perpetual memorie of us, every house of the iiii ordres of Freres, and in likewise every Farisshe church within this our Reame, not having a Fixe, nor noon other honest vessell of silver and gilte, nor of silver ungilted, for the keping of the said Holy Sacrament, have of our gifte in our life oon of the said Fixes, assone and spedely as goodly may be doon." • Various blunders have been made, and often repeated, with regard to supposed survivals of pyx tabernacles in English churches. The two commonly cited examples, at Milton Abbas, Dorset, and at Tewkesbury abbey, where there are beautifully carved small wooden cases (the former of which is surmounted by delicate CRUETS AND FLAGONS 45 pinnacled work), prove, on careful examination, to be receptacles for a ring or chime of small sanctus bells affixed to a wheel. A supposed pyx tabernacle of another style is to be seen in the library of Wells cathedral. It has several times been asserted that this cylindrical case of open woodwork used to hang in front of the high altar of Glastonbury abbey as a pyx tabernacle. It was exhibited before the Society of Antiquaries in 1897, when it was fully described by Mr. St. John Hope. It is 3 feet iij inches high, and has an internal diameter x)f 14^ inches ; it has moulded rings at the base and the top, as shown in the illustration. From the crested upper ring rise two pair of iron stays which unite in a ring. The woodwork shows considerable traces of colour. This lantern-like object, c. 1270, is depicted in the Proceedings of the Society as a "wooden pyx-canopy (.?)." We are in- clined to strongly emphasize the query. If the pyx was ever slung in its midst, it could not have been got out without infinite trouble. CRUETS AND FLAGONS Two cruets, one for wine and the other for water, formed an invariable part of the Eucharistic plate, from the earliest days of which we have any in- ventory. These cruets at great churches were sometimes of gold, but most usually of silver. Many, however, of the smaller parish churches were con- tent, in the 15th and i6th cents., with cruets of pewter, lead, or tin. Very ''"^^ 1 ,, - , . , CANOPY, WELLS rarely they were of glass ; a smgle pre- Reformation glass cruet was found concealed in the church of 46 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE Lapworth, Warwicks., about 1850; it passed into the hands of Mr. Bloxam. Even a city church was content with cheap cruets for the side altars. The churchwardens of St. Mary-at-Hill bought three pairs of cruets, in 1539-40, for 2s. ; they had, however, as we know from an earlier inventory, a pair of silver cruets, the use of which was probably reserved for the high altar. At All Souls' College, Oxford, are a pair of fine silver-gilt bottles, of a design apparently imitative of glass, which are still used as altar cruets in the chapel. They are 15 J inches high, and of flattened pear shape. On each shoulder is a curved man's head and neck, to which a strong chain is fastened, and to this chain is attached a lighter chain from the trefoil head of the stopper. It is not known whether these bottles were originally designed as altar cruets, but there is no valid reason against such a supposition ; they are apparently of early i6th-cent. date. A small silver parcel-gilt altar cruet, in private hands, was exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries in 1887. It has no hall- mark, and is supposed to be of I5th-cent. date. On the top is the initial A for Aqua, showing that the cruet is one of a pair ; the lost one would bear V for Vinum, A pair of golden cruets at Ely cathedral were distinguished by a large ruby for the wine and a beautiful pearl for the water. A beautiful little silver pair of cruets, in private hands at Beverley, has a bunch of grapes on one stopper and a water-lily on the other. In the church of St. Peter Port, Guern- sey, is a single cruet. It is late in date {c. 1530-5), and small in size, about 6 inches in height by 3 inches in its widest diameter. It is of a graceful flagon-shape, with lid, handle, and a slender curved spout, spring- ing low down like that of a coffee-pot, with an inscription round the bowl, Sancte Paule ora pro nobis. On the lid is en- graved A for Aqua ; doubtless its lost fellow bore V for Vimim. The size of these old cruets was but small when the cup was denied to the laity ; but after the Reformation it became necessary that CRUET, ST. PETER PORT, GUERNSEY CRUETS AND FLAGONS 47 the vessel for the wine should be considerably enlarged, and hence the use of what is generally termed the flagon. Thus, at Grantham, the churchwardens, in 1565, sold two chalices and a silver and copper shrine of St. Wulfran, " and bought wythe the pryce therof a silver pott parcell gylt and a Ewer of sylver for the mynistracion of the holye & most sacred supper of oure Lord Jhesus Christ called the holye communion." There are a few examples of these Elizabethan ewers or flagons extant ; they have a pear-shaped body, domed lid with thumb-piece, and a curved handle, and are mounted on a spreading circular foot. At Cirencester are a pair of these round-bellied silver flagons, dated 1576. A pair at St. Margaret's, Westminster, and one at St. George's Chapel, Windsor (with one of later date to match), are of 1583. There is another silver pair, of 1587, at St. Mary Woolnoth, London. At Rendcombe, Glos., are a pair of similar shaped small flagons, of 1592, ornamented round the bowls with engraved belts of the Elizabethan communion cup pattern. At Worplesdon church, Surrey, is a jug-shaped silver flagon of the year 1 598. At Wadham College, Oxford, are a silver-gilt pair of 1 598. Salisbury cathedral has a single silver example of the year 1604. Mr. Cripps, in his Old English Plate, cites several examples of silver tankard-shape flagons, of Elizabethan date, to be found among church plate. Such are those of the churches of TefFont Ewyas (1572), Fugglestone St. Peter, and Heddington, Wilts. ; and of the chapels of Corpus Christi and New College, Oxford. Soon after the beginning of the 17th cent, the round-bellied small flagon, or large cruet, quite disappeared, and the common tall tankard shape came into use. There are a pair at Salisbury cathedral of 16 10. The earliest flagon in any Somersetshire parish church is that of Weston Zoyland, 161 2 ; it is of a flat-topped tankard shape. The silver flagon of Hadley church, Middlesex, which is round-bellied and dome-topped, with a curious spout, is hall-marked 1609 ; but it was not given to the church until 1619, and is obviously of secular origin. It is interesting to note that both before and after the Restoration these flagons, throughout England, were frequently, and almost invariably in larger churches, in pairs, after the fashion of the old cruets and the small Elizabethan flagons. This supply of a pair of flagons may be taken, beyond doubt, as a survival of 48 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE the old use of a pair of cruets. This idea is further supported by the difference in covers or handles that may frequently be noticed in a pair of these flagons, whether of pewter or silver, of the same date. This difference, too, may well have been designed to assist, as of old, the celebrant or his server in readily distinguishing between the wine and water ; for the mixed chalice continued to largely prevail in post-Reformation times, and was the un- doubted use of such prelates as Archbishops Laud and Sancroft, and Bishops Andrewes, Cosin, Field, and Wren. There is a charming variation in both handles and shape in the elegant pair of silver flagons of classical design (Birmingham hall-mark 1775-6) at Sudbury, Derbs. Several of the old engravings of post- Reformation altars show a pair of flagons of varied shape ; notably in the frontispiece to The Whole Duty of receiving worthily the Blessed Sacrament, which was in a fifth edition in 17 17. SPOONS In the Greek Church a spoon with a long narrow bowl (the labida) has been in use since the loth cent, for administering the bread and wine together at the Eucharist to the laity, and the spoon is so shaped that its contents can be taken into the mouth with ease. The Celtic church used spoons, invariably a pair, with very broad bowls. A pair of late Celtic spoons were found at Crosby Ravensworth, Westmoreland, in 1868. The cross-lines in the bowl of one seem to confirm the suggestion of its use in Christian ritual. Various other pairs have been found in Ireland. They formed the subject of an illustrated article by Mr. Albert Way in the Archceo logical Journal (vol. xxvi.). Dr. Rock says that the only spoon used by the Latin church in this country for eucharistic purpose was one, with a deep bowl like a salt-spoon, for spilling a few drops of water into the chalice prior to consecration. The Dean and Chapter of Carlisle, in 168 1, sold an old silver spoon that had ** become useless." This was probably one of mediaeval date. Silver spoons are sometimes enumerated in I7th-cent. and later inventories of English church plate ; their use was to remove impurities from the altar wine. Such spoons remain, and are in occasional use, in some churches ; now and again the bowl is perforated to make them serve as strainers. There is an Apostle PAX 49 spoon at St. Peter's, Walworth, c, 1575, and another of 1597 at Dallington, Northants. At Ramsbury church, Wilts., is an Apostle spoon of early I7th-cent. date. Diss church, Norfolk, has a "rat-tailed" spoon, 171 5. At St. Olave's, Southwark, is a spoon of 1697, and at St. Saviour's, Southwark, is one of 17 16. There are many later instances. London is by far the richest part of the country in its supply of these post-Reformation church spoons. In the City churches are 58 of such spoons, varying in date from 163 1 to 1852 ; and in the County of London parish churches there are 37 spoons, dating from 1 641 to 1882. In the churches of the city of Norwich there are 12 spoons, varying in date from 161 3 to 1876. The spoon of St. Peter Mountergate is an interesting specimen of a seal-headed early 17th- cent. spoon. A small worn crucifix surmounts the seal-head, and is probably an addition taken from an older piece. On the back is E, W. \6\i. This spoon is engraved in the tenth volume of Norfolk Archceology, I PAX Yet another Instnmientum in connection with the service of the Altar was the pax, or osctUatoriuni. The pax, or tahda pacisy took the place of the direct kiss, and was introduced into this country A.D. 1250 by Archbishop Walter of York. This pax took the form of a plate, either round or oblong, of one of the precious metals, or of brass, wood, ivory, glass, or other material, and generally bore on its face a representation of the Crucifixion. Attached to the back was a handle for convenience of passing. The best-known metal pax in England is that which is said to have been given by William of Wykeham to his college at Oxford, and measures 5^ inches by 3 inches, and consists of an oblong plate of silver-gilt, with a rich border and an engraving of the Crucifixion with Sts. Mary and John. The pax is still preserved with other relics of Wykeham at New College, though its probable date is the end of the 15th or beginning of the i6th cent. A second pax is preserved at Oxford, at All Souls' College, and a third, of ivory, at the Archbishop's House, Westminster, where it is still occasionally used. Although the Rood was the usual ornament on the pax, there E 50 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE are a considerable variety of subjects on the several English examples still extant, such as the Vernicle, the Agnus Dei, the Nativity, the Adoration, and the Virgin and Child. There is an excellent illustrated article on the various paxes still surviving in England, by Miss Layard, in the ArchcBo logical Journal iox 1904 (vol. Ixi.). The pax was used in lieu of the early ceremonial kiss of mutual PAX, NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD salutation and affection at mass. It was kissed by the celebrant after the Agnus Dei, offered by the server or parish clerk to those in quire, and then to the congregation in order. The use of the pax is illustrated by a curious incident at Theydon Garnon, which shows that it did not always tend towards peace. On November 4, 1522, after the elevation of the Host, the parish clerk presented the pax to Mr. Hempton, lord of the manor, and patron of the living, and to Margery his wife, and then to Mr. John Browne, who took it, kissed it, and then broke it in two pieces over the clerk's head, causing streams of blood to flow. On the previous Sunday, Browne had said, " Gierke, if thou hereafter givest not me the pax first, I shall breke it on thy hedd." |G ,, cfl Q ^ g z w y o h g fc. 05 = ? O t^ = ^ § D - " e; K ^ D (« O H 2 2 >»• r.l _ u go M C U M J f- " s: CK CHRISMATORIES 51 INCENSE VESSELS Among the metal or plate vessels chiefly associated with the altar are the two employed in censing, the thurible, or censer, and the incense boat or ship. Many of our parish churches, as well as cathedral and collegiate churches, used to have these incense vessels of silver. A beautiful silver-gilt censer was found about the middle of last century when Whittlesea Mere was drained ; it is supposed to have formed part of the treasure of Ramsey abbey ; it is now at Elton, in the possession of Lord Carysfort. The censer is of 14th- cent. date. With it was found an incense ship or boat of most interesting design, of silver parcel-gilt ; it is of the reign of Henry VII. Both these vessels were figured in an illustrated catalogue of the Loan Collection of Plate exhibited in the Fitz- william Museum, May, 1895. Various censers or censer covers of bronze or latten have been found in or near to our parish churches. At Ashbury church, Berks., is the cover of a bronze censer of I4th-cent. date. In 1871 a bronze censer of rude but vigorous design was found under the flooring of the church of Limpsfield, Surrey. At Church Stretton, Salop., is another bronze thurible of early (possibly pre-Conquest) design, A bronze or latten censer, of I3th-cent. date, was found in Ripple church, Worcs., in 1884; it is of I5th-cent. date, and much resembles one found at Pershore, Worcs., in 1870, which is now in private hands. A bronze censer cover, found built into the east wall of the chancel of Langwith, Derbs., about 1865, is still preserved at that church. Another bronze censer cover of a like kind was found in the walls of the church of Dymchurch, Kent, in 1845. The lower part of a latten censer found at Heyford church, Northants, is now in the museum of the county town. It is small, of poor construction, and of late I5th-cent. date; but it is of exceptional interest as it has four armorial bearings on small shields. It is illustrated in volume thirty-one of the Antiquary. The foot has been clumsily renewed in brass. CHRISMATORIES There are fortunately still extant one or two examples of a very rare class of Instrtimenta Ecclesiastical called chrismatories, which 52 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE used to be found in every parish church of the land. The chrismatory was the case for the three holy oils of liturgical use, blessed on Maunday Thursday, namely, the (i) oleum infirmorum for the sick ; the (2) oleum sanctum, or oleum catechum enoruMy used at baptism and for several other purposes ; and the (3) chrisma, or balm, used for confirmation, ordination, and in various consecrations. A most interesting example of a chrismatory was found in 1879 in a hole in the wall near the chancel arch of Granborough church, Bucks. It is a pewter box, 6J inches long, 2J inches broad, and 2j inches high, and raised f inch from the ground by legs at the corners, which appear to have been lions couchant. There are remains of the hinge with its pin, showing that it originally had a high-pitched lid, of which two fragments remain. In the case itself are three circular perforations, i\ inch in diameter, con- structed to hold three circular pots about 2 inches deep. Each pot has had its lid, of which two remain. On the underside of these lids is a metal hooked prong i\ inch long. These hooks would be wrapped round with small portions of tow or cotton wool so as to raise for use a small quantity of the oil. Fragments of some fibrous material remain at the bottom of each pot. Another chrismatory was found at an earlier date at St. CHRISMATORY, ST. MARTIN'S, CANTERBURY Martin's church, Canterbury, and when exhibited before the British Archaeological Association in 1844, was supposed to be an ink- stand ! It is a bronze box, 6 inches long, 2 inches broad, and 2 inches high. The lid is high-pitched, surmounted by a vertical ridge, pierced with quatrefoils. The interior arrangement, with ALTAR AND PROCESSIONAL CROSSES 53 three oil-pots, is like that of the Granborough example, but not quite so perfect. A small silver-gilt casket at Godrich Court, bearing the royal arms, c. 1300, now empty of its contents, is probably a chrismatory {ArchcBological Journal, vol. xiii.). At New College, Oxford, is preserved the so-called chrismatory of William of Wykeham, though the fragment, which is the lid of a chrismatory, is really of later date. It is a piece of silver, 3 J inches long by ij inch broad, and forms three conjoined lids, on which are the three letters O, C, and V, in characters of the beginning of the i6th cent. These letters undoubtedly were used to distinguish between the three oils and their respective uses, and have generally been taken to be the initials of the words Ordinatio^ Confirmation and Unctio ; but it is more probable that O was for Oleum— "f^-^t is, the general sacred oil ; C for Chrisma ; and V for Unctio, or the oil for the sick. ALTAR AND PROCESSIONAL CROSSES A cross was not considered to be an essential ornament for the altar of a mediaeval English church, though it commonly occurred. It always, in later days, took the form of a crucifix, and frequently had brackets at the side bearing small figures of St. Mary and St. John. In the great churches the altar cross was frequently of gold, and richly jewelled ; it was usually of silver or silver-gilt, though sometimes of copper or latten in the ordinary parish church. The cross that the parishioners were bound to provide was one for processional use. Such a cross, however, not infrequently served at other times for altar use, being fitted with a foot to stand in, as well as a staff for carrying it. The use of the processional cross was of frequent and regular occurrence in the unreformed Church. In the wardens* accounts of St. Mary-at-Hill, an entry is made about 1480, "for mendyng of the crosse that is borne aboute every day;" and in 1484, a further sum of I2d. was paid "for mendyng of the dayllye Cross." Of the altar crosses, which used to adorn almost every altar, not one is known to remain. There are, however, some five or six mediaeval processional crosses of English workmanship still to be seen. Of these, the finest is preserved at St. Oswald's church, Durham. It dates from the 15th cent, is of white metal, richly 54 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE gilt, and mounted on a modern staff of ebony. The cross, which bears the crucified Christ and the inscription INRI, is foliated, and has at each of its four extremities circular medallions bearing the Evangelistic symbols. The pulpit-desk at Claypole, Lines., is supported by the old latten shaft of a processional cross. At the St. Albans Church History Exhibition of 1905, two processional crosses and a portion of a third were shown, all of the 15th cent. One of these, the property of the Society of Antiquaries, is of latten, originally parcel-gilt, with the Evangelistic symbols at the ends of the arms. The head of the shaft shows sockets for two branches (now lost) to carry the attendant Rood figures. The cross itself fits into a socket, to enable it to be moved to serve as an altar cross. In the second beautiful ex- ample, in private hands, the crucifix and symbols appear to have been later additions to a well-designed cross ; Tudor roses are engraved on the backs of the medallions. The third instance — presented by Mr. Aymer Vallance to the Victoria and Albert Museum since the exhibition — consists of the latten shaft of a cross, with branches bearing small images of the Blessed Virgin and St. John, but the cross itself is missing. CROZIERS AND MITRES The crozier and mitre may be briefly noticed, for though personal ornaments, they often come under the heading of church plate. The pastoral staves or croziers, the attributes, with the mitre, of bishops and certain abbots, are best studied in the monumental effigies of the dignitaries of the Church ; but we are fortunate in still possessing three fine English examples — one illustrating the early, the second the middle, and the third the latest period of ecclesiastical art. In all cases the crozier took the form of a staff, generally of wood, surmounted by a head of metal, which imitated in form that of a shepherd's crook. As with the other ecclesiastical metal work, the earlier forms were simple, the later more elaborate and architectural in character. Of the three that have come down to us, the earliest, that discovered in a stone coffin at Wells, and preserved in the cathedral library at that city, is Romanesque in character, and apparently belongs to the end of the 12th cent. The head is of latten, enamelled, and adorned with turquoises and D if C/3 C W o O :: O 5 c/2 < U . 2 .fe CROZIERS AND MITRES 55 other semi-precious stones. It forms a graceful curve, within the hollow of which is a statuette of St. Michael trampling on the dragon. The design is excellent and the execution vigorous, and though some of the enamel has perished, the preservation is on the whole good. The shaft was of wood, and has utterly perished. Of the croziers of the middle and later periods, that of William of Wykeham, preserved at New College, Oxford, must have always been the finest, though it is typical of the class. It dates from about 1370, is architectural in character, the detail being Decorated rather than Perpendicular in style, an instance of the fact so frequently met with that the subordinate arts lagged a little behind the architectural. It is entirely of silver, gilt and enamelled, and is nearly 7 feet in length, of which the head takes up rather more than three. The shaft, which is divided into three by bands, terminates by an expanded capital of foliage. Upon this is an octagonal turret of two stages, the lower buttressed and panelled, the upper of tabernacle work, with figures in the niches. Above it expands again, and then comes an octagon spire, sur- rounded by two tiers of canopied niches, the lower with figures, and from the summit of the spire springs the finial or crook ; this is crocketed on its outer margin, and divided on each side into nine compartments, each with a figure standing against a back- ground of enamel. A kneeling figure within the concavity of the crook forms a terminal. The third of the remaining croziers is that of Bishop Fox, of Winchester, also at Oxford, at Corpus Christi College. This is of silver, and with later detail resembles in general design that of Wykeham, though it is less ornate and somewhat smaller ; its date is c. 1500. Coffin croziers of wood are occasionally found. There is one in the Newcastle Museum, and two at Hereford cathedral. At St. David's are the remains of a crozier of copper-gilt, ascribed to Bishop Gervase, 1215-29, and another of like material, sup- posed to have belonged to Bishop Beck, 1280-93. A bronze crozier-head is also preserved at the same cathedral, which was found in the tomb of Bishop Gower, 1328-47. An ivory crozier- head, c. 1 180, was found at Chichester, and a jet crozier-head., c. 1290, in another bishop's grave of the same cathedral church. The silver-gilt head of Bishop Wren's crozier, 1638-67, is pre- served in the chapel of Pembroke College, Cambridge. 56 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE At York Minster is a large foreign crozier of silver, 6 J feet long, which Catharine of Portugal, queen-dowager of Charles XL, gave to her confessor, Cardinal Smith, who was nominated to the see of York by James XL, in 1687. This crozier was seized by Lord Danby (afterwards Duke of Leeds), as the Cardinal was going in procession from the Roman Catholic chapel to the cathedral, and was by him afterwards presented to the Dean and Chapter. Under the head of the crook are figures of the Blessed Virgin and Child ; it also bears the arms of Portugal, and those of the Cardinal, surmounted by his hat. The Mitre was originally a head-covering of textile fabric, but eventually, by the 13th cent, both bishops and abbots had their " precious " or special mitres of gold or silver plates, garnished with jewels. Xn 1306 the prior of Winchester wore a plain mitre in the presence of the bishop, but in his absence a silver mitre, pearled and jewelled. The inventory of St. Paul's cathedral in 1295 enters four mitres that had silver-gilt plates. The list of " the jewels belonging to my Lord of Lincoln's miter," in 1540, would fill one of these pages. The enamelled ouches of the head-band, many of the jewels, the gold crockets, and portions of the ground-work of seed pearls of the precious mitre of William of Wykeham, made about 1370, are preserved at New College, Oxford. The silver-gilt mitre of Bishop Wren {i6sS-6y) is preserved in the chapel of Pembroke College, Cambridge. Xt is fitted with a cap of crimson satin lined with white silk ; the condition of the lining shows that it was worn and not merely treated as an ornament ; it is iij inches high and 7J inches in diameter. ALMS DISHES The alms dish proper, as connected with the altar, is only of post-Reformation use. Xt may be well, however, to draw attention to a few of the earlier and more important examples in precious metal. At St. George's chapel, Windsor, is a large plain silver-gilt alms dish, with the Tudor rose on the central boss, of the year 1556; and at Lambeth Palace chapel is another silver-gilt dish of 1635. At Canterbury cathedral are two silver-gilt alms plates, 1 1 inches in diameter, which are probably of the year 1 562. SILVER-GILT MITRE OF BISHOP WREN PEMBROKE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE CUIRBOUILLI CASES 57 At Mortlake, Surrey, is a silver alms basin, 12 inches in diameter, of the year 1686; round the rim is Moretlak Churchy 168;. The church of Wantage, Berks., possesses a very fine alms dish, with repousse work, of 1661. At St. Margaret's, Canterbury, are two silver bowls, 7J inches in diameter, each having a handle 3I inches long ; they were made in 1726 for the collecting of alms. One is inscribed with the Offertory Sentence from St. Matt. v. 16, and the other with the Sentence from Prov. xix. 17. The shape seems to have been suggested by the wooden collecting-boxes. HERALDIC CHURCH PLATE The custom of engraving the arms of donors on altar plate, though apparently rarely exercised, was not unknown before the Reformation. By will of 1378, Sir John Foxley left a chalice to his parish church cum armis meis. Lady Margaret Hungerford, who died in 1477, left two pairs of silver-gilt candlesticks to her charity chapel in Salisbury cathedral which bore her quartered arms. In the inventory of the Jewel House of Henry VHI. is found : " Item a chalice, with the princes arms en paten." Several other instances might be told. In post- Reform at ion days, arms and donor inscriptions largely multiplied on church plate, and, though distasteful to the reverent mind, have their value and interest for the heraldic student and genealogist. Every county affords abundant examples. Among instances of this kind in the one county of Derby, it may be mentioned that the arms by Pegge are on the Shirley flagon ; the arms of Harpur and Crewe on the Ticknall patens ; the Curzon arms on the Kedleston patens ; those of Horton on the Croxall flagon ; Willoughby on all the Risley plate ; Sacheverell on the Morley paten ; Benskin on the Alvaston plate ; Gilbert on the Spondon paten ; Lord Exeter's arms on the noble plate of All Saints, Derby ; and the beautifully quartered arms of Harpur on the Normanton chalice and paten. CUIRBOUILLI CASES In mediaeval days valuable church plate was not infrequently provided with cases of embossed or stamped cuirbouilliy or boiled 58 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE leather, for their better preservation. A few old examples have come down to our own times. The most interesting of these is the leather mitre case of William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester (i 367-1404), which is preserved at New College, Oxford. It is stamped with fleur-de- lys, and bound with iron straps ; it once contained the richly jewelled mitre {initra preciosa) of the founder, of which several fragments yet remain. There is another mitre case of similar leather, bound with iron, at Exeter cathedral. There are several instances of cuirbouilli chalice cases. At Cawston, Norfolk, the leather chalice case is stamped with Jhesus Nazerenus Rex Judeorum, There are others at Moulton, Saxlingham, Thorpe, and Thompson in the same county ; at Uldale and Whitbeck, Cumberland ; and at Lanivet, Cornwall. At the Herefordshire church of Pipe and Lyde there is a most interesting example of a cylindrical case of leather, 8| inches in height, and a diameter of 6 inches. The top of the cover is stamped with I.H.S. in black-letter characters ; on the sides of the case are two fleur-de-lys, a shield with a plain cross, and other devices. A leather band, but not the original one, goes round the case. It is well illustrated in the fine volume on Herefordshire church plate issued in 1903. There is a somewhat similar ancient case of cuirbouilli in the church of Swefling, Suffolk, which is supposed to be of Edward I. date. It is 11 inches high and 6 inches in diameter. In this instance it is. clearly a bottle-case, for there is an opening at the top for the bottle-neck. Probably both of these cases were used for the safe keeping of sacramental wine. PEWTER The use of pewter about the altar, particularly in the cruets, was by no means unknown in pre- Reformation days, but never for chalice or paten. In the 17th cent, its use for the flagons that succeeded to the mediaeval and Elizabethan cruets became general. The reformed Church, however, declared its preference even in this respect for the purer metal, and never contemplated the un- happy introduction of pewter for the actual Eucharistic vessels. The twentieth of the canons of 1603 requires that the wine "be CUIRBOUILLI MITRE CASE OF WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM NEW COLLEGE, OXKOKD PEWTER 59 brought to the Communion-table in a clean and sweet standing-pot or stoop of pewter, if not of purer metal." In the numerous instances where pewter remains in old churches, it generally takes the form of flagons or plates. One of the earliest dated pewter flagons or stoops is at Cerne Abbas, Dorset, of the year 1630. There is a highly exceptional round-bellied example of 1635 ^t Lubenham, Leics. At West Sheflbrd, Berks., there is a pewter tazza, ornamented in low relief, of the year 162 1. The church of Mildenhall, Suffolk, possesses two remarkably fine pewter dishes, loj inches in diameter, each having a central boss with the arms of Charles I. enamelled in colour, and inscribed C. R, 1648. The earliest dated instance of a pewter chalice that we have met with occurs at Osmaston-by-Derby, where there is chalice, flagon, and alms basin, all of 1629. At Cranoe and Stonton Wyville, Leics., are sets of pewter chalices, patens, and flagons, of the year 1699. In the diocese of Hereford — and we trust nowhere else in England — there are actually three parish churches using pewter chalices and patens at the present day (1903) for the Blessed Sacrament, namely, Aston, Crasswell, and Llangua. There is, however, something worse than pewter, which is after all an honest straightforward metal ; electro-plate, which shams to be silver, ought always to be banished from altars. In Mr. Malcolm Bell's Old Pewter (1906), a good example of a pewter flagon, from the church of Midhurst, Kent, forms the frontispiece, and several examples of i8th-cent. English pewter chalices are supplied. "Patens from a church in Yorkshire, 15th cent," are also illustrated, but we doubt both date and description. CHAPTER III PISCINA— SEDILIA— EASTER SEPULCHRE— LECTERN THE PISCINA PISCINA is the name usually given to the water-drain placed near to an altar. As a rule this shallow stone basin, with a hole at the bottom to carry off the water into the ground, is found beneath a niche, moulded according to the period when it was erected, and placed at a convenient height in the wall to the south of the altar. Pope Leo IV., about 850, directed that a place was to be provided near the altar for the disposal of the water used for the ablution of the vessels and of the priest's hands after mass. In the 13th cent, the preliminary washing of the priest's hands before the canon of the mass was enjoined, and hence came about the two drains and basons, side by side. But in the 14th cent, the custom became general of the celebrant drinking the ablution ; hence the reversion to the single drain. In the remains of English conventual churches, piscinae or drains have been found in the floor near the altars, as at the Cistercian abbeys of Fountains, Rievaulx, and Furness, as well as in the ruins of the churches of the Austin house of Kirkham, and of the Remonstratensian house of Langdon, Kent. Mr. St. John Hope is of opinion that such floor drains were also common in parish churches at an early date, but afterwards disappeared through constant repaving. It is supposed that these floor piscinae were for the purpose of pouring out a little of the contents of the altar cruets, before using them, with the intention of removing any possible dust or other impurity. Durandus gives a symbolical turn to this custom, by explaining that it was done to typify that the blood and water from the side of Christ flowed out upon the ground. 60 THE PISCINA 6i Piscinas of Norman character are not very common. There are good examples at Towersey, Bucks. ; Crowmarsh and South- leigh, Oxon. ; Ryarsh, Kent ; Ramsey, Hants ; Horbling, Lines. ; Wynford, Dorset ; Graveley, Herts ; and Scarcliffe, Derbs. Scarcliffe is an instance, of which there are several, where the early Norman piscina was not removed when one of later form was substituted. In this case, the drain itself is in a square stone projecting from the wall, and above it is a diminutive rounded niche of 9 inches wide by 7 inches high. At a later date this piscina was discarded, another one I being constructed in the wall a little I further to the west. This second I piscina has a square opening above it, which forms a compound part of the thing that runs along the side of the wall. The remains of discarded Norman piscinae are sometimes the only cer- tain relics of a church of that period, as in the case of the I5th-cent. church of Bicknoller, Somerset, where the loose head of a Norman piscina shaft may be noticed within the later piscina niche. In later Norman work a shaft sometimes projected from the wall to carry the drain, the capital being more or less ornamented, as in the case of Towersey, Bucks., of which an illustration is given in Parker's Glos- sary. Several of these occur in churches of the North and East Ridings, as at Barton-le-Street. An illustration is here given of a late Norman detached piscina shaft, of a curious geometrical design, now in the porch of Tollerton church, Notts. It was recently recovered from a neighbouring shrubbery, where it had been thrown away. Other Norman piscina shafts may be noticed at Ashe and Winchfield, Hants. In the ruins of Kirkstall abbey, Leeds, there are as many as seven late Norman piscinae in different parts of the great conventual church. TOLLERTON, NOTTS ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE An example or two of Early English single piscinas are to be •found in almost every county, often elegantly treated. Instances may be named at Baulking, Hampstead Norris, White Waltham, and Uffington, Bucks. ; Kirtlington, Oxon. ; Warmington, North- ants ; Gilston and Ippollitts, Herts ; Radnage, Lee, and Leck- hampstead, Bucks. ; and Great Shelford, Cambs. Huntingdon- shire has five examples, Catworth, Covington, Somersham, Houghton, and Kings Ripton. Bramley, Hants, and Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, York, are good instances of Early English piscina shafts ; there is the head of another at Halam, Notts. At Bentworth and Elvetham, Hants, are graceful piscina niches ornamented with the dog-tooth moulding. In the first half of the 13th cent, the fashion came into use in some parts of England of constructing what is generally termed an angle piscina niche, which was formed in the eastern jamb of the south chancel window nearest the altar, with a niche opening (usually tre- foiled) both to the west and the south, and often a shaft between them. One of the most graceful of these angle piscinas, here illustrated, occurs at Blyford, Suffolk. In this immediate district several other examples may be noted, as at Bramfield, Chediston, Frostenden, Heveningham, South Cove, and Uggeshall ; in the last case the two openings are very small. Bedfordshire also affords various instances of these angle piscinas, and there is a good example at North Moreton, Berks. A par- ticularly elaborate angle piscina of the 15th cent, may also be noted at the parish church of Cheltenham. In the 13th cent., as well as in subsequent examples, a stone shelf was often introduced into the niche over the piscina drain, for the purpose of placing thereon the cruets, and perhaps the ciborium for use at mass, thereby serving the purpose of what was BLYFORD, SUFFOLK THE PISCINA 63 afterwards termed the credence table. In various instances this shelf was of wood, and the grooves into which it fitted may not infrequently be noticed. Occasionally the original wooden shelf still remains, as at Ufford, Northants ; Shalbourne, Berks. ; and Grosmont, Mons. A remarkable I3th-cent. example is illustrated from Ditchfield, Wilts. In this case the shelf has thr^e semicircular projections. The piscina at Swineshead, Hunts, of this century is noteworthy. Under the eastern jamb shaft of the south window of the chancel is a small water-drain, the angular canopy of which serves as a base to the shaft. In addition to the one at Swineshead, there are six other I4th-cent. piscinas in this county, namely, at Great Paxton, Spaldwick, Kimbolton, Fen Stan- ton, Little Stukeley,and Broughton. At Thorpe Arnold, Leics., the piscina of the south chantry is of a style occasionally found in this district, but very rare elsewhere. The credence shelf is placed in an arched recess above that over the bason, both of them having trefoiled heads. The I3th-cent. piscina of Strat- ford Toney, Wilts., has a Purbeck marble basin, the projecting corbel of which is carved with snake-like figures ; the arch of the niche is trefoiled. In the last half of the 13th cent., and extending into the beginning of the 14th cent., the custom came into general use in England of having two basins and drains under the piscina niche. As a rule, a double piscina may be assigned to the reign of Edward I. ; but there are a few exceptions, both of earlier and later date. One of these drains was used for pouring away the lavabs used after the ceremonial washing of the priest's hands, and the other for the rinsing of the chalice and paten. The earliest of these double piscinas that we have noticed is at Doveridge, Derbs., which is about the beginning of Henry III.'s reign ; it is illustrated in the third volume of Cox's Derbyshire Chttrches. DITCHFIELD, WILTS 64 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE ..--:!!^. On the south side of the chancel of Rothwell, Northants, are the remains of an elaborate piscina niche of I4th-cent. date, wherein is the very exceptional number of three drains or basins. In the ruins of Salley abbey, W. R. Yorks., there is a similar triple piscina. At Grosmont, Mons., is a beautiful niche with cinquefoil cuspings and dog-tooth mould- ing, over a double piscina drain. In the south wall of the south chapel is another beautiful niche of the same date over a single piscina. The latter retains its original wooden credence shelf. Huntingdonshire has several double piscinas, each with a shelf at the back of the niche, such as those of Abbots Leigh, Alconbury, St. Ives, Kimbolton, Somersham, and Wiston ; the last named is an unusally late instance. There are many excellent instances of double-drained piscinas in Cambridgeshire ; as at Histon, where there is one in each transept, and at Arrington, Bottisham, Bartlow, Coveney, Doddington, Elsworth, Fen Drayton, Foxton, Kennett, Long Stanton St. Michael, Milton, Sutton, Trumpington, and Witcham. Among other examples, scattered over the whole country, may be men- tioned those of Hawton, Gedling, West Bridgford, and Bunny, Notts. ; Porlock and Luccombe, Somerset ; Ickworth, Hargrave, Mildenhall, and Cowling, Suffolk ; Kingswalden and Digswell, Herts ; Doveridge, Ilkestone, and Norbury, Derbs. ; Algarkirk, Buckminster, Corby, Burton Coggles, Skillington, and Wilsford, Lines. ; Ashwell and Noseley, Leics. ; Lillingston and Lovell, Oxon. ; Drayton and White Waltham, Berks. ; Wavendon, Bucks. ; Crediton, Devon ; Auckland, Durham ; Hawkesbury, Glos. ; Farningham, Kent ; Hampton Bishop, Herefords. ; and Fladbury, Worcs. COWLING, SUFFOLK THE PISCINA 65 Among the more noteworthy piscinas of late 13th or I4th-cent. date, the one at Compton Beauchamp, Berks., which has a drain shaft, may be mentioned. There is a highly remarkable arrange- ment of this century in the south aisle of the church of North Marston, Bucks., where there are two niches having crocketed canopies over the basons, one on each side of the east window. A fine piscina niche in the handsome Decorated chancel of Westhall, Suffolk, has two credence shelves — a most unusual arrangement. TRUMPINGTON, CAMBS. NORTH MARSTON, BUCKS. In Parker's Glossary are illustrations of two ornamental and effective piscina niches, both having crocketed canopies, and early in the 14th cent., though very different in style, the one at Dor- chester, Oxon., and the other at Great Bedwin, Wilts. Another one of great beauty of tracery, also figured by Parker, is at Fyfield, Berks. As examples of isth-cent. or Perpendicular work, Parker's Glossary depicts those of Tackley, Oxon., and Ilfracombe, Devon. Piscina shaft-drains of this period are very rare. There is one of much beauty of design, here illustrated, in the chancel of the out-of-the-way little church of Treborough, West Somerset. There is a single instance of a late wooden piscina shaft in the Beauchamp 66 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE chapel, St. Mary's, Warwick. In the chancel of North Marston, Bucks., there is a good and unusual canopied piscina of this later period projecting from the wall. At Blythburgh and Spexhall, Suffolk, the late piscina niches have cinquefoil heads. Occasionally, there is a very small niche, in later examples, in the wall each side of the main niche over the bason, which are clearly intended for the cruets, as at Kirk Hallam, Derbs. At Barton, Notts., the two small niches for the cruets appear in the back of the larger niche. Over the piscina bason of Southwold, Suffolk, are two niches, one above the other, whilst a tiny pointed TREBOROUGH, WEST SOMERSET CRAWLEY, HANTS opening communicates with the seats to the west, as shown in the illustration of the sedilia. It should be remembered that some of the handsomest piscina niches are those that are worked continuously in the same design with the sedilia. Such are of all periods, as is shown in the beautiful examples of Monyash, Ilkeston, and Sandiacre, Derbs. (all illustrated under " Sedilia "), or in those of Meesden, Anstey, Waltham, Wheathampstead, and Watton, Essex. In contrast to these elaborate examples of the treatment of the piscina niches, it should be mentioned that the exact reverse SEDILIA 6^ occurs in certain instances, particularly in the Midlands, where the shallow basin and drain occur in the sill of a window, on the south side of the altar, without any kind of niche or canopy over it. Instances of this occur at Knipton and Goadby Marwood, Leics. ; at Crich and Sawley, Derbs. ; at Sibthorpe, Notts. ; and at Salt- fleetby. Lines. At Lydeard St. Lawrence, Somerset, there is a piscina in a small square-headed recess immediately below the easternmost window on the south side of the nave. A singular place has been found for the piscina drain at Crawley, Hants. In that case, as shown in the illustration, the squint opening from the north aisle into the chancel has been used for the piscina of the side altar. Now and again a case occurs in which there is an inner small recess within the piscina niche, usually at the west side, as at Hempstead, Norfolk, and in the south aisle of Hawton, Notts. Such recesses were clearly intended for the deposit of the cruets when not in use. The most remarkable accompaniment to a piscina yet remains to be mentioned. At Long Wittenham church, Berks., is the diminutive figure of a cross-legged knight, fully armed, with shield and sword, the head on a pillow and the feet on an animal. This figure, which is only 26 inches long, rests on the slab of the piscina, with the head towards the east. The head of the niche over this small effigy and the drain is of trefoil shape, with the figures of two angels with expanded wings. The only reasonable conjecture about this very strange position for a human ^^'gy is that it commemo- rates a knight of local renown who provided this piscina, and who may in other ways have been a benefactor to the chancel. There is an illustration of this piscina in the ArchcBological Journal^ ii. 134. In the twelfth volume of the Proceedings of the Cumberland and Westmoreland A ntiqiiarian Society^ there is a good illustrated paper on all the mediaeval piscinas of the diocese of Carlisle. SEDILIA Sedilia is the name applied to the three stone seats or recessed canopied stalls not infrequently found near the altar in the south wall of the chancel. They are of far more exceptional occurrence in Continental Christendom than in England. The usual number 6S ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE is three, and they are intended for the use of the priest, deacon, and subdeacon at high mass. The earlier examples (and, quite exceptionally, some of the later ones) are generally graduated in height, the priest using the one nearest the east, and then the deacon and subdeacon. When on the same level, they mark the time when priests acted as assistants of the celebrant. They occur in the I2th cent. ; those at Earls Barton, Northants, and Wellingore, Lines., are good examples. In the next cen- tury they were fairly general. In districts where stone abounded, much skill and delicacy of treatment were often expended on the enrichment of the canopy-work of the stalls. As a rule, particularly in the best examples, a water-drain or piscina, with a more or less elaborate niche over it, to the immediate east of the seats, formed part of the design. The three stalls in the earlier examples are divided by detached shafts or pillars, and generally in later times by a piece of walling, which is not infrequently pierced with apertures. There are detached or isolated sedilia at the cathedral churches of Exeter and Bristol, at Tewkesbury abbey, and at the collegiate church of Crediton. Derbyshire, for a small county, affords a variety of good in- stances of different periods, from which most of our sedilia illus- trations are taken. Monyash is the only instance in the county where the seats are graded ; it is an excellent example of late Norman or Transition workmanship, and is known from record evidence to date about 1 200. The sedilia of Ilkeston church show admirable work of the time of Edward I., about 1280-90. At Sandiacre there are three remarkably fine sedilia with piscina niche of the same elaborate pattern, about 1 340 ; the canopies are lofty and have cinquefoil featherings, with open tracery above, and are richly crocketed and finialed. Later in the same century are the handsome sedilia, with quatrefoil treatment, of Tideswell ; whilst at Kirk Hallam are effective but shallow canopies of the 15th cent. Two other illustrations are given of somewhat remarkable late iSth-cent. examples. The sedilia of Rotherham, W. R. Yorks., have the dividing walls frequently pierced. South wold, Suffolk, is of an exceptional plan ; it has a beautiful canopy running con- tinuously over the table-bench, the seats of which are not divided. There are one or two other instances of this plan, though not so SEDILIA 69 MONYASH, DERBS. ILKESTON, DERBS. 70 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE ornate as that of Southwold. At Spratton, Northants, there is a stone bench, with room for three persons, under a plain pointed arch. Instances of a single stone slab or sedile in the structure of the south wall of the chancel are met with occasionally. Examples may be mentioned at Luccombe, Queen Camel, and Baltonsborough, Somerset ; Spennithorne, N. R. Yorks. ; Edlesborough, Lee, and Wroughton, Bucks. ; Ditching, Sussex ; Avington and Eaton Hastings, Berks. ; Broad-Hempston, Devon ; and Barrow and Chaddesden, Derbs. At Lenham, Kent, a single seat projects considerably from the wall, and has stone elbows, but the back is recessed and has a trefoiled head ; it is illustrated in Parker's Glossary. At Bickley, Oxon., there is a single stone seat, in the usual position, with one elbow. There are also various examples of double sedilia. The most finished instance that we know of two seats occurs at Whitwell, Derbs., where there is beautifully ornate work about the middle of the 14th cent. The tabernacle work above the seats is carried to a considerable height, and is most effective ; the two seats are on a different level, the eastern seat being a step the higher. Double sedilia occur at Sedgeberrow and Bricklehampton and at two other Worcestershire churches ; also at West Bridgeford, Notts. ; Milton Keynes, Bucks. ; Fen Drayton and Whittlesea, Cambs. ; Maristow and Yealmpton, Devon ; Pattingham, Staffs. ; Aldworth, Harwell, Steventon, and Tidmarsh, Berks. ; Mobberley and West Kirby, Chester ; and Tempsford, Sharnbrook, Hockliffe, and Bedford St. Mary, Beds. On the other hand, although three sedilia is the normal number, there are some instances where this number is exceeded. There are fourfold sedilia at the great churches of Westminster, Durham, Gloucester, and Furness ; also at Luton and Turvey, Beds. ; Maid- stone, All Saints, Kent ; Langley Marsh, Bucks. ; Rothwell, North- ants ; Ottery St. Mary (in the Lady Chapel), Devon ; Stratford-on- Avon, Warwicks. ; and the Mayor's Chapel, Bristol. Southwell and Maidstone have each five-stalled sedilia. At episcopal high mass, one of the additional stalls would be occupied by the canon with the mitre, or perhaps in other cases by the master of the ceremonies at great festivals. In Mr. Prior's admirable work on Gothic Art, attention is SEDILIA 7i SANDIACRE, DERKS. TIDESWELL, DERBS. 72 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE KIRK HALLAM, DERBS. SOUTHWOLD, SUFFOLK SEDILIA 73 drawn to " the lordly graces of the cathedral as it were," which are to be found in the fine I4th-cent. traceries and head-carvings of some of the sedilia of the south-east of England, as at Westwell, Kent. Other good examples of this rich period occur at Great ROTHERHAM, W. R. YORKS. Haseley, Oxon. ; Grafton Underwood, Northants ; Hawton and Car Colston, Notts. ; Shottesbrook, Berks. ; Kidderminster and Chaddesley Corbett, Worcs. ; and Nantwich, Bunbury, and Malpas, Chester. The instances illustrated in Parker's Glossary are — St. Mary's, Leicester, enriched Norman ; Wellingore, Lines., Transition Norman ; Uffington, Berks., Early English ; Chesterton (with 74 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE ball-flower mouldings), Merton, Oxon., and Willesborough, Kent, 14th cent. ; and Farnham, Surrey, and St. Mary's, Oxford, 15 th cent. It is not uncommon to find a second set of sedilia in the south aisle. This arrangement is fairly frequent in Leicestershire and Northamptonshire. In addition to the fine Norman sedilia in the chancel, St. Mary's church, Leicester, possesses the most beautiful of Early English examples in its south aisle. The same may be noted in the south transept of Filey, Yorks. At Medbourne, Leics., the second series occupies a unique position, namely, at the south end of the aisle of the south transept. In some districts, particularly in East Anglia, the sill of the window in the south wall of the chancel nearest to the east is lowered, so as to form an inexpensive kind of sedilia bench. EASTER SEPULCHRES Every church seems to have been provided with a movable chest or small receptacle known as the Holy Sepulchre or Easter Sepulchre, in which on Maundy Thursday was deposited a consecrated wafer, shut up in a pyx, together with a cross. This chest was placed on the north side of the chancel, and there con- stantly watched until an early hour on Easter Sunday, when the pyx was taken out and replaced upon the altar. The actual receptacle was usually, if not always, of wood ; an example in private possession is described by Bloxam, but no other is known, unless the painted box at Warkleigh, Devon, already described under " Pyx," is included. Occasionally a temporary structure of wood, enriched with hangings, was supplied to sustain the Sepulchre ; but it was more usual to provide a permanent structural recess to enshrine the Sepulchre, and many of these remain and are now known as Easter Sepulchres. In fact, whenever there is a sepulchral arch on the north side of the chancel, it is reasonable to consider it as primarily an Easter Sepulchre, even when it covers an effigy or other sepulchral monument. The subjoined list, how- ever, only includes those which' are marked out definitely as Easter Sepulchres. The structural Easter Sepulchre does not appear to have come into use before the latter half of the 13th cent., and the majority belong to the late Decorated period. They are invariably on the EASTER SEPULCHRES 75 north side of the chancel, and where this is aisled may be in the north aisle. The most usual form seems to have been a recess in the chancel wall, reaching to the floor and covered by a cusped and crocketed arch. Many, however, are greatly enriched with tracery and tabernacle work, and with appropriate figure sculpture ; they were sometimes of towering height, as at Bampton, Oxon., and Northwold, Norfolk. Of the sculptured Sepulchres, one of the most beautiful, though not the most ornate, is that at Lincoln Cathedral. This is in three divisions, each consisting of a trefoil-headed open niche, canopied and crocketed, and at the base of each is a figure of a soldier, finely carved in bold relief ; it dates from the 13th cent. Most of the sculptured Sepulchres are in Lincolnshire and the neighbouring counties ; that at Heckington is typical of all. It is about 10 feet in height by 5 feet 6 inches, and presents a base of four canopied panels, each occupied by the figure of a sleeping soldier. The superstructure is treated as a triptych ; the lower portion of the central division has the recess for the Sepulchre, 2 feet 8 inches wide by i foot 8 inches in depth, covered by a straight-sided arch with crockets and finial. The remainder of the middle stage, in all three divisions, is occupied by a sculptured representation of the Resurrection. Above the finial of the recess is a figure of the risen Christ, with angels on either hand, while the lateral divisions show four female figures and two angelic. This stage is heavily canopied and pinnacled, and all its flat surfaces covered with foliage carving, bewildering in its intricacy and richness. In date this composi- tion belongs to the fully developed Decorated period. At Hawton, Notts., there is an Easter Sepulchre much resembling that at Heckington, and of the same date, but richer in detail. It is considered by some judges to be the most elaborate and beautiful work pertaining to an Easter Sepulchre in all England, or probably in all Christendom. It would be quite in vain here to attempt any real description of the masterly piece of sculpture, 17 feet long by 1 2 feet high, which occupies most of the north wall of the chancel. The various groups of sculptured figures represent the sleeping soldiers, the Rising from the Tomb, the visit of the Maries, and the Ascension. In the too-much-despised Ecclesiastical Court of the Crystal Palace is a faithful facsimile of this grand work in plaster. Two other Notts, examples are worthy of special mention. At 76 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE Sibthorpe the Easter Sepulchre, on the north side of the chancel, is also enriched with figure sculpture. Two soldiers are crouching on each side of the niche for the Blessed Sacrament ; above, in the crocketed canopy-work, is the Risen Lord and two adoring angels. The sepulchre at Arnold is a fine piece of bold carving of early 14th- cent. date, but unfortunately much mutilated. Those at Patrington, Yorks. ; Northwold, Norfolk ; and Hol- combe Burnell, Devon, with the same general arrangements, are a century later in date. The Easter Sepulchre con- tinued to be provided down to the date of the Reformation ; that at Tarrant Hinton, Dorset, is of perceptibly renaissance character in its details. In several cases we know from wills that an enriched tomb on the north side of the chancel was specially designed for the twofold purpose of serving as an individual memorial as well as for the Sepulchre. Thus Thomas Fiennes, Lord Dacre, directed that his tomb should be prepared on the north side of Hurstmonceaux chapel, "to be there made for the placing of the Sepulchre of Our Lord, with all fitting furniture thereto, in honour of the most Blessed Sacrament." Another form of Easter Sepulchre, which has generally escaped observation, or, if noticed, is quite wrongly described as " an altar," occurs in several West Somerset churches. In this case the Sepulchre assumes the form of a chest tomb, with panelled work on the front and at the west end, and usually bearing the symbols of the Passion. These examples, all of the 15th cent., were made to stand on the north side of the chancel with one end (unsculptured) against the east wall. At Porlock there are two EASTER SEPULCHRE, ARNOLD, NOTTS. EASTER SEPULCHRES ^^ of these Sepulchres, one delicately carved, in its right place, and another, which was probably ejected in favour of this better one, I now in the porch. Luccombe has one, which used originally to stand in the north-east of the chancel ; it has been shifted three times during as many restorations, and is now in a hopelessly wrong place. Milverton has another in the true place. In Selworthy churchyard is an ejected Sepulchre of this nature, used for a tomb inscription at a later date. There is also an Easter Sepulchre of this description in the church of St. John, Winchester. It is evident from the Lincolnshire churchwarden returns of 1 566, as to what had become of " monuments of superstition," that several of the Easter Sepulchres of that county were of wood. At Burton Goggles and at Beesby the wardens testified to the burning of the Sepulchres ; at Croxton they entered as to the sepulchre, " whearof is made a shelfe to set dishes on ; " whilst at Castle Bytham, they made a communion table of it. One of these wooden sepulchres (such, doubtless, as the one at Castle Bytham) is now, alas ! in private hands in the north of Derbyshire, and is said to have been ignorantly ejected from the church of Hampton, Worcs. It is of I5th-cent. date, and table form, with panelled traceried sides ; it is 4 feet 3 inches by 2 feet, and nearly 3 feet high. rA list of Easter Sepulchres [The asterisk implies definite sculptured treatment.] Beds, — ^*Arlesey, Bletsoe, Luton. Bucks. — Ashendon, Haddenham. Verbs. — Dovebridge, Staveley (north aisle). Devon. — West Alvington, Frogmore, Holcombe Burnell, South Pool, Woodleigh. Dorset. — Dorchester, St. Peter's, Loders (discovered 1890), Tarrant Hinton, c^ 1530. Essex. — Great Leigh, Ramsey, Writtle. Glos. — Gloucester, St. Mary Crypt. Hants, — Winchester, St. John. Herts, — Redbourn, Sandon, Sarratt, Tring. Leics. — Garthorpe, Lubbenham. Lmcs, —CdiSilQ Bytham, Covenham St. Mary, *Heckington, Honington, *Horbling, Irnham, * East Kirby (with offertory basin), Langtoft, *Lincoln Cathedral, *Navenby. Middlesex. — South Mimms. 7S ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE Norfolk, — Baconthorpe, Blakeney, North Creyke, Kelling, *Northwold, Raveningham. Northants. — Cogenhoe^ Floore, Grendon, Lutton, Marston, Twywell, Watford. Notts, — * Arnold, *Hawton, *Sibthorpe. Oxon. — Aston Rowant, *Bampton, Ducklington_, Lewknor, Magdalen College, Oxford, Stanton Harcourt, Piddington. Salop. — Bitterley, Wroxeter. So??terset. — Luccombe, Milverton, Porlock, Selworthy. Stiffolk. — Blythburgh, Gorleston, Holbrook, Long Melford. Surrey. — Cranley, Walton-on-the-Hill. Sussex. — Alfriston, Bosham, Broadwater, Catsfield, Eastbourne, Hamsey, Hastings, St. Clement, Hurstmonceaux, Lancing, Ore, Slaugham. Warwicks. — Bilton^ Ladbrooke, Warwick, Withybrook (carved and painted), Wolverton. Worcs. — Hadsor. Wilts. — Colerne. Yorks. — Hovingham (sculptured fragment), =*Patrington. LECTERNS It was customary in the Middle Ages to have in chancels or quires a desk or lectern from which the Gospel was read ; these were usually of wood or metal, and movable, more rarely fixed and of stone. The practice of the reformed Church has been to bring them out into the body of the church, and to use them for reading the Lessons, and it is in the nave, just west of the chancel arch, that the comparatively few mediaeval specimens which have come down to us are now to be found. The movable desks, whether of wood or metal, are of two forms — the one a simple desk, either single, twofold, or fourfold, supported on a pillar ; the other, perhaps the more usual form, an eagle, or rarely a pelican, supporting the book on its outstretched wings. As a rule the simple desk is the earlier form, the existing examples belonging to the 13th and 14th cents., while the eagle lecterns date from the 15 th and i6th. The use of the eagle lectern seems to have revived in the 17th cent., and many examples are of that period, the best of which are those of the cathedral churches of Wells (1660), York (1666), and Lincoln (1667). The finest metal desks are at Merton College, Oxford (engraved by Bloxam), and at Yeovil ; the best examples of wooden LECTERNS 79 make are those at Bury and Ramsey, Hunts. ; Detling and Lenham, Kent ; Lingfield, Surrey ; and Blythburgh, Suffolk. Of the old metal eagles, the most beautiful is that at King's College, Cambridge, and other good examples may be found at Cropredy, Oundle, Southwell (from Newstead priory). Croft, Lines., and several other places. At St. Stephen's, St. Albans, is a brass eagle bearing the inscription, Georgius Creichtown Episcopus Dimkeldensis, It formed part of the plunder of the abbey of Holyrood, and was brought here by Sir Richard Lee. This Bishop of Dunkeld ruled from 1527 to 1550. At Norwich cathedral is a good and early specimen, where the pelican takes the place of the eagle. There are the remains of an old wooden pelican that formerly served as a lectern in the church of East Leake, Notts. Wooden eagles are somewhat less frequent than those of brass ; there is a good one at Leighton Buzzard, and another instance of the pelican in wood at Middleton, Hants. The brass lectern of Oxburgh, Norfolk, is inscribed Orate pro anima Thome Kyppyng quandam rectoris de Narburgh. Stone desks are very rare, but examples are found in the prior's chapel at Wenlock priory, and at Crowle, Worcs. Both are beautifully carved and of Early English date ; that at Crowle is said to have been removed from Evesham abbey. There are later and plainer desks of stone at Gloucester cathedral and at Chesterblade, Somerset. Stone Gospel lecterns of a simple character, taking the form of a small desk projecting from the north wall of the chancel, are also to be found in a few rare instances, chiefly in Derbyshire, where they may be seen at Chaddesden, Crich, Etwall, Mickleover, Taddington, and Spondon.* They also occur at Chipping Warden, Northants ; at Roos, E. R. Yorks. ; and at Walsoken, Norfolk. The quires of the larger parish churches, as well as conventual churches, were also not infrequently supplied with double desks which stood in the centre, to support the large music-books for antiphonal singing. At Blythburgh, Suffolk, is a double wooden lectern of simple good design, c, 1450, somewhat dilapidated, but sufficiently substantial to be used for the reading of the Lessons ; it is to be hoped that no effort will be made to " restore " it. This lectern, * The Gospel lecterns of Chaddesden and Spondon are illustrated under Almeries in Chap. IX. 8o ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE being double, could not have been a Gospel lectern for use in the Mass ; it must have been a quire lectern of the kind just named. Interesting as this lectern is — it was engraved in Suckling's History of Suffolk^ and has appeared in other books — it is not so unique or exceptional as is generally represented. There is another double wooden lectern in East Anglia of i5th-cent. date, in better preservation and of decidedly superior design — in the church of Shipdham, Norfolk. The Shipdham example is, however, of some- what later date, being probably of the reign of Henry VII. At Bristol cathedral there is a massively constructed desk mounted on wheels, intended for supporting heavy service-books and for moving them from side to side of the choir. It is furnished with a cupboard to contain the books when not in use. The remains of' the early lectern at Peakirk, Northants, are thus described by Mr. Peers in vol. ii. of the Victoria History of that county — " The lectern is a rare and interesting example of the first half of the 14th cent. The old revolving desk is unfortunately lost, but the wooden stem, composed of eight slender filleted shafts with moulded capital and base, is in fairly good condition, and stands on an original moulded stone base, an octagon set diagonally on a square. Traces of red paint remain on the wood." The following is a list of old lecterns (excepting those just mentioned in the north chancel walls), arranged under counties : — Beds. — Leighton Buzzard, wood eagle (14th cent.). Berks. — Bledlow, wood eagle; East Hendred, wood; Sparsholt, wood eagle (14th cent.). Bucks. — Cublington (1685); Chilton, stone desk; Eton College, brass; Ivinghoe. Cambs. — Cambridge, King's College^ brass eagle; Isleham, eagle; Leverington, desk. Chester. — Astbury, wood. Cornwall. — Phillack, wood eagle. Devon. — Bigbury, wood eagle; Exeter, St. Thomas, wood; Newton Abbot, brass ; Ottery St. Mary, wood eagle ; Thurleston. Dorset. — Lyme Regis, double (17th cent.) ; Wimborne, brass eagle (1623). Essex. — Littlebury, wood; Newport, wood. Glos. — Bristol, St. Mary-le-Port, eagle (1683), removed from cathedral; Chipping Camden, brass (post-Reformation) ; Gloucester, Cathedral ; stone desk; Maisey Hampton (1623), with book chain. PELICAN LECTERN, EAST LEAKE, NOTTS LECTERNS 8i Hants. — Middleton, wood eagle; Newchurch, pelican; Southampton, Holy Rood, and St. Michael's ; Winchester, wood eagle. Herts. — St. Albans^ St. Stephen, brass eagle; Aldbury, wooden desk; Wheathampstead, wood eagle. Hujits, — Bury, double wooden desk (13th cent.); Little Gidding, brass eagle; Ramsey, wooden desk (15th cent). Kent. — Canterbury Cathedral, brass eagle (i6th cent.); Detling, double wooden desk (14th cent.); Lenham, wooden desk; Swanscombe, double wooden lectern. Lines. — Croft, brass eagle ; Edenham, brass eagle ; Epworth, desk ; Lincoln Cathedral, brass eagle (1667); Long Sutton, brass eagle; Messingham, wood ; Swaton, wooden desk. Middlesex. — St. Paul's Cathedral, brass eagle. Mons. — Llantilio Pertholey, desk. Norfolk. — East Dereham; East Harling, 14th cent, (recently stolen); Norwich, Cathedral, brass pelican (14th cent.), St. Gregory, brass eagle ; Oxburgh ; Ranworth, wood ; Redenhall ; Shipdham, desk ; South Burlingham, stone; Wiggenhall, eagle. Norihants. — Oundle, brass eagle ; Peakirk ; Peterborough Cathedral, brass eagle. Notts. — East Leake, wood pelican; Southwell Minster, brass eagle (from Newstead Priory). Oxon. — Cropredy, brass eagle; Oxford, Merton College Chapel, brass desk. Salop. — Wenlock Priory, Prior's Chapel, stone desk (13th cent.). Somerset. — Brent, East, wooden eagle ; Chesterblade, stone desk ; Chewton Mendip, wood (17th cent.); Monksilver, wooden eagle; Wedmore, wooden desk; Wells Cathedral, brass eagle (1660), wooden desk; Yeovil, brass desk. Staffs. — Wednesbury. Suffolk, — Blythburgh, wooden desk ; Bury St. Edmunds, brass ; Cavendish, brass eagle; Clare, brass eagle; Hawstead, wooden desk; Hopton- by-Lowestoft ; Lavenham ; Leverington, wood eagle ; Lowestoft, brass eagle. Surrey. — Croydon, brass eagle; Lingfield, double wooden desk. Warwieks. — Coventry, Holy Trinity, brass eagle. Wilts. — East Coulston (17th cent.); Salisbury, St. Martin, brass eagle. Worcs. — Crowle, stone desk (15th cent). Yorks. — Harthill ; Kirkheaton, double wooden lectern ; Laughton-en-le- Morthen, wood eagle ; York, All Saints, St. Crux, Cathedral, brass eagle (1666). CHAPTER IV SCREENS AND ROOD-LOFTS ENGLAND was pre-eminently, above the rest of Western Christendom, the land where the chancel or rood-screen most predominated, and whose surviving examples are far more numerous and beautiful than in other countries. The subject, therefore, demands special consideration. During the later Middle Ages almost every church in England was provided with a screen to separate the chancel or the quire of the clergy from the laity, and in parish churches this screen supported a towering Rood. In a few instances the screen was absent, and the Rood was carried by a simple beam, the rood-beam, but the exceptions were so few that the screen may be considered a necessary part of the church furniture ; even the smallest church now remaining, that at Culbone, has a well-developed chancel screen. At the time of the Reforma- tion the removal of the Rood was ordered, and invariably carried out. Its removal usually also involved the destruction of the rood- loft ; nevertheless the screens were, for the most part, retained, and although through neglect or wanton destruction they have ever since been disappearing, yet many hundreds still exist. In addition to the rood-screens, others, known as parcloses^ separated chancel aisles, where they were present, from the chancels, and most chapels were .also screened. The earliest screens, of which examples may be seen in the old Basilican churches of Italy, were quite low ; but at a some- vWthat later period what has been termed by a recent writer " the jijnystery type" of screen predominated throughout the whole of fthe Orthodox Churcii and in all the distinct communions of the ^Eastern rite. This was the feature which was one of the particular .characteristics of the early Church in Britain, so far as the evidence of existing fabrics speaks. Their universal use in every church, .however small, was eminently En^U^h, aod tjxe pxacess oi evolulloja 8? ' SCREENS AND ROOD-LOFTS 83 that brought it about seems to be of Eastern rather than Italian origin, following primitive customs such as prevail in the Armenian, Coptic, and Abyssinian churches. The sanctuary was screened off by at least one partition from the western or more congregational part of the building. The small archway in the wall at the east end of the nave communi- cating with the chancel or sacrarium, was doubtless usually closed by a curtain or veil in the simple churches of the earlier Saxon days. Its survival, as recently pointed out by Mr. Aymer Vallance in his able paper on the screens of Kent, is to be noted in the invariable mediaeval use in England of the Lenten veil, whereby the high altar and its surroundings were completely shut off by a great curtain or sheet of stained (painted) linen, or other material, during the whole of the forty days. This solemn Lenten veiling was but the reflection of what had once been the more primitive method of mysteriously shrouding the place of the Sacra- mental Presence from the main body of the church all the year round. A use that had once prevailed unceasingly became rele- gated to a season of extra solemnity. King Alfred, soon after his triumph over the Danes in 8y8, ordained the very heavy fine of one hundred and twenty shillings for the offence of tearing down the Lenten veil. A permanent veil must therefore by this date have become obsolete, and as the veil for constant use disappeared, a permanent screen, with a convenient door in the centre, took its place, to prevent undue intrusion into the sanctuary. As the " mystery " idea of a more or less permanent screen or curtain, secluding the sanctuary from the general worshippers, gradually gave way before the more open view of the Western Church, then so largely prevailing in England, the desire came about to gain a better sight of the chief altar than would be afforded through the small, single archway, already partially blocked at all times (as seems practically certain) by a wooden screen. Hence originated triple chancel arches, or a western chancel wall pierced by openings other than the central one. One of the most interesting of these pierced walls is to be noted in the early Norman village church of Scawton, N.R. Yorks., on the Hambledon Hills, where, on the face towards the nave, are two round-headed recesses (one on each side of the arch), which are pierced at the back by smaller square squints. There are openings of a similar character each side of the small chancel arch in the Hampshire 84 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE churches of Ashley and Otterbourne. About a dozen other examples are extant. Opinions differ, but in each of the three cases just named it is our belief, after careful examination, that the openings are later than the arch. In the case of Inworth, Essex, where the arch, with the general chancel construction, is almost certainly pre-Norman, the openings each side of the arch are clearly after- thoughts. Contrariwise, the central and side archways into the early chancel of Pyecombe, Sussex, are all of the same date. Remains, it is true, of threefold chancel archways occur in a few cases among the earliest of our Saxon churches ; but the idea of triple chancel arches of coeval construction, which are just occasionally found of later date, doubtless took their rise from these mere pierced walls. At Westwell, Kent, there is a stone screen, apparently of Edward I.'s time, of good design and execu- tion, consisting of three lofty arches supported by slender shafts. Of this triple arch form there are other but plainer examples at Wool, Dorset, and Welsh Newton, Mons. Other instances of the pierced chancel wall are to be noted at Baulking, Berks., and at Sandridge, Herts. In the latter case, the eastern face of this chancel screen is richly moulded, whilst the western face is plain ; Mr. Somers Clarke is probably right in his supposition that orna- mental wooden screenwork originally stood against the western face. Now and again, but very rarely, a parish church followed a not unusual plan of large conventual or minster churches in having a substantial screen wall with a mere central doorway. This form, of I4th-cent. date, may be noted at Eastwell, Leics., where the screen of solid masonry is pierced by a central doorway, which has on each side a traceried, unglazed window. There is a like plan in the church of Stockton, Wilts. Another noteworthy example of the 14th cent., to which we think the so-often-misused word "unique" can fairly be applied, occurs at Capel-le-Ferne, near Dover. In this case the wall between the nave and chancel contains an open arcade of three small two-centered arches, rising from octagonal shafts. Over the central arch is another opening, which was doubtless constructed to contain the Rood and its attendant figures. Continuing the brief mention of stone chancel sa'eens, the note- worthy examples of Stebbing and Great Bardfield, both of them in Essex, should not be overlooked. In these instances, the chancel arch has been filled with stone tracery after the fashion of a large SCREENS AND ROOD-LOFTS 85 window. The first of these, of beautiful early I4th-cent. design, has tracery supported by two clustered columns and like responds. The mutilated central opening has been restored. The somewhat similar instance at Great Bardfield is of I5th-cent. date, and is now complete ; of the three rood statues, the central portion has been reinstated. The number of stone chancel screens must at one time have been very considerable. There are many more yet extant than is generally believed, as well as a large variety of old stone parcloses or side screens, as is shown in the subsequent county lists. A large number of the earlier stone screens disappeared in favour of wooden successors during the 15th cent, when beautiful timber screenwork, well coved at the top, to support wide rood- lofts, became the fashion, and spread from parish to parish. The beautiful stone screen of Stebbing, Essex, showed obvious signs, prior to its restoration, of having been rudely cut away to make room for an elaborate I5th-cent. wooden screen or loft. Evidence is supplied by pre-Reformation churchwarden accounts of two Somersetshire cases in which stone screens were cleared away to make room for their timber successors. At Tintinhull, in 1451-52, the accounts record the erection of a new rood-loft and rood, on the breastwork of a previous stone screen. But the old rood-loft was of wood, for two oak beams, called "Hemes," named as part de veteri rode lofte^ were sold for \%d.y as well as six joists for 4^. The carpenter was paid \os. for making the new rood-loft, and 6j. 8^. for wainscoting for the same. At Yatton, a very splendid rood-loft and screen was completed in 1455-56, in succession, it appears, to one mainly of stone, for the alere, or gallery, of the old rood-loft was supported on stone corbels, 1 2d, being paid for their removal. The new rood- screen and loft must have been splendidly carved, gilded, and painted. The carpenter's account alone amounted to ;^3i. Sixty- nine images were set up about the rood-loft ; they cost £i \Qs, 4^., the setting of them up 4^., and a penny was given as " erneste peny to the ymage maker " when the covenant was made with him. Some of these images were probably placed in small niches on the uprights of the screen. The carpenter's name was Crosse, and it is interesting to note that the wardens expended 2\d. on " ale gvyn to Crosse yn certyn tyme's yn hyS worke to make hym wel wellede (well willed)." On another occasion Crosse received a pair of 86 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE gloves (which cost 4 Pilton (508, and p.), Pinhoe f, Plymstock f, Plymtree St. John * t> Poltimore (badly restored), South Pool *, Portlemouth*, Powderham, Rattery (and p.), Rockbeare (parts), Rose Ash (and p.), Sampford Peverell (fragments), Shebbear (fragment), Sheepstor (fragments), Sheldon (parts old), Sherford * (and p.), Shute * (portions in manor house), Silverton (portion, and p.), Slapton (and p.), Staverton * f (restored), Stockleigh Pomeroy (portion). Stoke Gabriel *, Stoke-in-Teignhead (Richard II.), Stoke Rivers (parts now in Wem Gilford church), Stokenham * t (repainted), Sutcombe (base), Swymbridge f, Talston "f (and p.), Tamerton Foliot (parts). North Tamerton (parts), Tawstock (and p.), Throwleigh * (parts), Thurlestone (fragments), Torbryan*, Trusham* (restored), Uffculme f, Ugborough * (and p.), Warkleigh (portion), Washfield (1624), Welcombe, Whimple * (portion), Widecombe-le-Moors '^ (base), Willand, Wolborough * (and p.), Woodbury (modernized). Dorsetshire The county is not noted for its screenwork, of which there are but few remains. Though it cannot be included under "church furniture," mention should be made of the beautiful oak screen in the monk's refectory at Milton Abbas, which bears the date 1498, and the rebus of Abbot Milton, a mill and a tun. Part of the panels, with painted figures of the Apostles, of the old rood-screen of this abbey church has found its way to the parish church of Hilton. The recent transfer of the parish of Trent from Somerset to Dorset, gives the latter a handsome canopied rood-screen. The chapel of Ford Abbey has a screen which formed part of the work of Edmund Prideaux, Attorney- General of the Pro- tectorate, when he resided here in 1649. In the Lady Chapel of the Roman Catholic church of Spetis- bury is a rood-screen that came from Whitford, near Axminster. On the screen at Milborne, added after the Restoration, is the following : " Where the word of a king is there is power, and who may say what doe^t thou " (Eccl. viii. 4). Stone, — Batcombe, Bradford Abbas, Cerne Abbas (restored), Thomford, Wool. W^<7^^.— Buckland Weston (parts), Ford Abbey chapel (17th), Hawkchurch, Hilton *, Milborne, Okeford Fitzpaine (parts), Pulham (parts), Sherborne (hospital chapel), Spetisbury (R. C. church), West SCREENS AND ROOD-LOFTS 115 Stafford (17 th), Sturminster Marshall, Trent f, Upway, Winterborne Came, Winterborne Monkton, Winterborne Stickland (parts), Yet- minster (parts). Durham Darlington Is the only instance in the county where the rood- loft, or, rather, its base, is retained. This notable stone screen is known, from the heraldry that formerly adorned it, to have been erected towards the close of the 14th cent. It is now a quite plain screen, 13 feet high, 7 feet across, with a painted central archway, and occupying the whole of the chancel arch. The old projecting rood-loft gallery was taken down in 1756. At Brancepeth there is an interesting screen erected by Bishop Cosin when rector, between 1626 and 1633. Several pieces of old I4th-cent. screenwork were fixed above the chancel arch. Sedge- field has a screen of about the same date. The chancel screen, with returned stalls, of Ryton church, we know from the arms to have been the work of William James, who was rector from 16 17 until the Commonwealth. Merrington has a fourth example of these remarkable I7th-cent. screens, which were all Gothic in character; the old church was destroyed in 1850, but the screen was re-erected in its successor. Staindrop is the only church of the county which retains a pre- Reformation rood-screen ; it is of a plain character. At the west end of Easington church is a triple canopy that formerly formed part of the old rood-screen. The screen in Durham Castle chapel is of Bishop Crewe's time ( 1 674-1 709) ; it was removed here from the cathedral church. Stone, — Darlington t (Richard II.). Wood, — Brancepeth, (i) (fragments, 14th), (2) (17th); Durham Castle (late 17th), Easington (fragment), Merrington (17th), Ryton (17th), Sedgeiield (17th), Staindrop. I Essex One of the chief features of Essex screenwork is the fine stone screenwork that occupies the whole of the chancel arch of Stebbing. It is of noble design and workmanship, of the earlier part of the 14th cent. It is supported by two clustered columns and like ii6 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE responds. There is a good engraving of it in its unrestored con- dition in Buckler's Essex Churches. At Great Bardfield is a 15th- cent. stone screen of similar character. There is a fair amount of good wooden screen work remaining of different periods of the 14th cent., as at Little Canfield, Clavering, Castle Hedingham, Newport, etc. The rood-screens of Roothing Abbot and North Weald show the best I5th-cent. carving ; the screen of Yeldham bears the arms of the De Veres and other families. The remains of the old rood-screen of High Easter now form the organ screen. Shalford screen retains the original doors ; there is a rood-beam above it. Stone. — Great Bardfield (restored), Stebbing (r4th, restored), Waltham. Wood. — Aveley, Bradfield, Bradwell-juxta-Coggeshall, Bumpstead Steeple (part), Little Canfield (14th), Castle Hedingham (14th), Little Chesterford, Clavering (14th), Copford, High Easter (remains), Elmdon, Finchingfield (and p.), Hadstock (tower), Halstead, Henham- on-the-Hill (14th), Little Horkesley (parts), Hythe (part), Inworth, Latchingdon * (now in Chelmsford Museum), Lamarsh (14th), Laver Magdalen (restored), Layer Marney, Margaretting (base, 14th), Manuden, Newport (14th), Norton Mandeville, Orsett (14th), Rickling (T4th), Roothing Abbots, Shalford, Shenfield, Springfield (parts old), Stanford-le-Hope (p.), Stondon Massey (i6th), Thurrock Grays, Upminster (parts old). North Weald, Weathersfield, Wendens Ambo, Wendon, Wimbish (p, 14th), Witham, Woodham Ferrers (part, 14th), Yeldham. Gloucestershire is not remarkable for the number or the interest of its screens. In the fine old church at Cirencester, there is a handsome carved oak screen of early i6th cent., now set up in the Lady chapel to form a vestry ; it was moved here from the east end of St. John's chapel. At Fairford, the east ends of both north and south aisles are enclosed by finely carved screen work of late I5th-cent. workmanship. There is a painted tympanum over the screen at Mitcheldean. Stone. — Berkeley, Gloucester Cathedral, Tewkesbury (p.). Wood. — Ashchurch, Aston Somerville, Beverstone (restored), Broadway (p.), Cirencester (p.), Cranham (restored), Dymock (fragments of old), Elmstone (Henry VH.), Fairford (p.), Hailes, Lydiard Tregoze (17th), Mitcheldean, Northleach, Notgrove, Winchcombe. t \ 1 ! STEBIUNG, ESSEX ERAMFORD, SUFFOLK GREAT BARDFIELD, ESSEX STONE SCREENS ^ OF THE ^ UNIVERSITY OF I SCREENS AND ROOD-LOFTS ii Hampshire There is not much screenwork in this county. The i5th-cent. chancel screen of Silchester is noteworthy for its beautifully pierced cresting, ornamented with a series of well-carved small angels. Two rood-screens of South Warnborough and Greywell, that generally escape all observation, are of considerable interest, as they both retain their rood-lofts. The screen of South Warn- borough, c. 1400, is of the unusual height of 18 feet 4 inches ; it is coved on the eastern side, and has a width at the top of 7 feet. The rood-screen and loft of the little church of Greywell, near Odiham, is of unusual arrangement. Just 6 feet in front of the small low chancel arch is a good but late screen, having two tiers of four openings, with traceried heads on each side of the wide central opening or doorway. From the beam over the top of this is a platform extending to the east wall of the nave. This formed a rood-loft, 6 feet 8 inches wide ; it is well panelled beneath, and the roof over it is also effectively panelled. A well-built projecting structural turret on the north side of the church contains the easily ascended stone stairs. But turret and screen appear to be of the first quarter of the i6th cent. The loft was probably built to hold " a pair of organs " as well as the Rood. This screen was raised some 2 feet on a stone base at the time of the restoration of the church in 1870, and consequently the panelled platform with it. This alteration was made on account of its inconvenient lowness and the cutting off of the top of the chancel arch. But it was a great pity to do this, as up to that date the rood staircase was in regular use, whilst the loft was fitted with seats, and called the Men's Gallery, as the men of the small congregation usually sat there. The raising of the screen has necessitated the closing of the upper rood-loft door. It is supposed that the space beneath the loft, between the screen and the wall on each side of the chancel arch, formed accommodation for two diminutive chapels ; but if so the altars must have been of exceptionally small proportions. The upper part of the present quire screen of Romsey abbey church is part of the discarded screen of early I4th-cent. date that formerly stood across the entrance to the north transept. There are a few interesting post-Reformation screens : North ii8 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE Baddesley, 1608 ; Empshott, 1624 ; and Farnborough, which may be late Elizabethan. Deane is a noteworthy example of 18 18, when the whole church was rebuilt. At EUingham, the tympanum over the I5th-cent. screen, at the back of the rood-loft, has been already described in the general remarks. At Newport, I. of Wight, parts of the old screen are worked up into a reading desk. Stone, — Christchurch f (14th), Winchester, Cathedral (p.), St. Cross (p.). Wood. — Ashe (parts), North Baddesley (Jacobean), Barton Stacey, Buriton (much restored), Colemore, Deane (18 18), EUingham f, Eversley (Georgian), Empshott (1624), Farnborough (17th), Greywell, Hartley Wespall (modern), Leckford, Maplederwell, Newport '^ (I. of Wight), Romsey, Silchester, South Warnborough f, Winchester, Cathedral, St. John's, (i) (rood-screen), (2) (parclose, 14th). Herefordshire The screenwork of this county is not of first importance. At Aymestrey there is a fine i5th-cent. chancel screen, whilst parcloses surround the chantry chapels at the east end of each aisle. The richly carved coped screen of Brinsop was restored in 1897. An old parclose screen at Eardisland now stands before the organ. There are also good I5th-cent. rood-screens at Bosbury, Eyton, and Pipe. The screen of Brinsop church is of late I4th-cent. date ; whilst those of Pixley and Llandinabo are supposed to go back to the I3th-cent. ^S/i?;?^.— Kingsland (p.). J^^^^.— Abbey Dore, Aymestrey (and p.), Bosbury, Brinsop (14th), Burghill t (restored). Canon Pyon, Dilwyn (p.), Eardisland (p.), Eaton Bishop (restored). Eye (p.), Eyton, Foy, Hope Mansell, Kenderchurch, Kimbolton (tower), Llandinabo (13th), St. Margaret, Pixley (13th), Putley (base, 17th), Staunton f, Stoke Lacy, Stretford, Tedstone Delamere, St. Weonards, Withington. Hertfordshire has a fair amount of good screenwork, chiefly of the 15th or early 1 6th cents., save for two instances of post-Reformation work. But there is nothing in the county of special note unless Red- bourne is excepted ; the screen in this case is canopied on both sides to carry the rood-loft, and such a survival is rare in this part of England. At Baldock the screen goes right across the whole SCREENS AND ROOD-LOFTS 119 width of the church. Kings Walden is excellently carved and in good preservation ; Flamstead and Much Hadham are also good examples. There are a few instances of fine screenwork other than rood-screens, as at Hitchin, between the chancel and the aisles ; and at Ware, between the south transept and the Lady chapel. At Kimpton, the screen now between the south aisle and Dacre chapel originally served as the rood-screen. There is a I4th-cent. stone screen at Sundridge, and the structural I4th-cent. screen at St. Albans Abbey is well known. There is also a i5th-cent. south chapel stone screen at Aldbury. A considerable portion of the wooden tympanum of rood-screen of St. Michael's church, St. Albans, is in the vestry ; it is painted with a Doom. Aldenham (p.), Baldock, Berkhamstead, Bishops Stortford, Bygrave, Flamstead, Gilston (13th), Graveley, Little Hadham (p.), Much Hadham, Hitchin (p.), Hunsdon (base), Kelshall *, Kimpton, Kings Langley (p.). Kings Walden, Kimpton (p.), Redbourne f, Sandon, Sandridge, Sawbridgeworth, Walkern, Wallington, Ware (p.), Wheat hampstead (post-Reformation), Wyddial (two Jacobean screens). Huntingdonshire There is but little noteworthy screenwork in this small county. Tilbrook church has a fine rood-screen with a coped top towards the west, with original balusters of the loft-rail ; it was elaborately restored in 1867. There is a good rood-screen at Swineshead, a parish which has been lately transferred to Bedfordshire. The parclose screens at the east ends of the aisles of Kimbolton are exceptionally good. The Great Gransden chancel screen has unhappily been removed to the organ chamber. Abbotsley (remains), Easton, Great Gransden, Hamerton, Kimbolton (p.), Molesworth, Old Hurst (restored), Spaldwick (p.), St. Neots (p.), Swineshead, Tilbrook \ (restored), Upwood (p.), Wiston (p.), Yaxley, Yelling. Kent There is a good deal of interest pertaining to the extant screen- work of Kent. An admirable and well-illustrated article on the mediaeval rood-lofts and screens of the county, by Mr. Aymer Vallance, appeared in Memorials of Old Kent^ published at the I20 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE beginning of 1907. Of stone chancel screens, in addition to those of the two cathedral churches of Canterbury and Rochester, those of the parish churches of Westwell, of the 13th, and Capel-le- Ferne, of the 14th cent., are noteworthy. Of actual wooden rood- screens, the earliest is that of Northfleet ; but there is a painted beam at Minster-in-Sheppey of the first half of the 13th cent, which was probably a rood-beam. Northfleet screen is of early I4th-cent. date ; the back of the cornice is carved to represent the heads of our Lord and the twelve apostles. The screens of Shoreham and Lullingstone are beautifully vaulted, and bear the base of the old rood-lofts. Stalisfield is a fine example. At Eastchurch and at Leeds the screens extend completely across both nave and aisles. The lower part of Kentish screens usually consists of rectagonal panels, with tracery inserted in the heads. In two instances in the county there are remains of figure painting, namely on a parclose screen at St. Laurence's and St. Peter's, both in Thanet. Mr. Vallance has a sad story to tell of many rood-screens destroyed during the latter half of last century. There are several other churches, in addition to those in the subjoined list, "where portions of the original screenwork have been egregiously worked up into seats, reredoses, pulpits, or reading-desks." Stone corbels for carrying the rood-loft occur at Appledore, Capel-le-Ferne, Chartham, and M listed. At Eastry, Eynesford, Monkton, Postling, and Selling are other corbels for the rood-beam or lintel of the screen. At Fordwich and Ightham are remains of the oak rood- beam embedded in the masonry. There is a most peculiar approach to the former rood-loft at Wouldham ; the rood-stairs, starting in the north wall, turn southwards, and the passage is carried on a stone bridge, between two flanking walls, breast high, across the aisle to the north arcade wall. The rood-screen was extant in 1789, and is described in the Gentleman s Magazine for that year. Stone. — Canterbury Cathedral f, Capel-le-Ferne (14th), Rochester Cathedral t, Westwell (13th). Wood. — Appledore, Bapchild, Biddenden (parts), Boughton-under-Blean, Brasted, Brookland (parts) ; Canterbury, St. Alphege (fragment of loft) ; Chalk (17th), Challock (removed to north aisle), Little Chart (p.), Chislehurst, Cobham (moved), Dodington (parts), Eastchurch (restored), Faversham (parts), Gillingham (p.), Goudhurst (parts), Graveney, Hackington (restored), Harty, Harrietsham, Headcorn (parts), Heme, 1 IF*?;; CV / 1' '%-r f ■fl " * I i mm^'d^ ''«' "'5 » ' J" '~. ,^'«"^1'i^;»7 ^7ri^^^<^ iii.^ ^"•A'*' "piCrrcH.- o^ H<$^rM CoRViFi?, o|^.'^OD ScR-^EV ■ ».^. SCREENS AND ROOD-LOFTS 121 Hernehill, Ightham (p.), Ivychurch (parts), Iwade (moved), Kemsing (restored), Lamberhurst (p.), Leeds, Lullingstone f, Lydd, Lynsted . (parts), Maidstone (p.), Minster-in-Sheppey (parts). Great Mongeham (moved), Newchurch (p.), Newenden, Newington (parts), Northfleet (early 14th), Rodmersham (p.), Old Romney (p.), Ruckinge (p.), Shoreham f, Smarden (parts), Stalisfield, Swanscombe (moved), Teynham (parts), Thanet St. Lawrence * (p.), Tong, Upchurch (p., 14th), Westwell (parts), West Wickham, Wingham (parts), Wrotham. Lancashire has but little fine screenwork remaining, save the grand screen at the entrance to the quire of the old collegiate church of Manchester, and the beautiful late work in the old priory church of Cartmel. Huyton has a handsome rood-screen, c. 1460. At Sefton, in addition to the chancel screen, there is a side screen to the north chapel. The old chancel screen of Colne, much mutilated, dates from 15 15, when the church was rebuilt. Cartmel (17th), Cartmel Fell chapel f, Colne, Farnworth (17th, under tower), Goosnargh (p.), Huyton, Manchester fj Middleton, Rochdale, Sefton, Stidd, Whalley (p.). Leicestershire The screenwork of this county does not call for any particular comment, save in two cases. At Thurcaston is a 1 3th-cent. screen, illustrated in Bloxam's Gothic Architecture. This screen is now under the tower arch, the place of the rood-screen being occupied by an example of the 15th cent, simple in design, but of excellent workmanship. Over the Lockington screen is an elaborate filling up or tympanum of 1704 date. The next most interesting is the restored rood-screen of Beeley church, which is c» 1360. The screen at Long Whatton came from Colston Basset, Notts., in 1892, when the latter old church was so shamelessly unroofed and gutted. At Buckminster is a richly panelled stone staircase for the rood-stairs, a rare example. Stone. — Ayleston (p., dwarf), Eastwell (14th), Frisby (p.), Quorndon (p., dwarf). ^^fthe: UNIVERSITY !j OF FONTS 169 Norwich cathedral, Norfolk. Westhall, Suffolk. Sail, Norfolk. West Lynn, Norfolk. Southwold, Suffolk. Weston, Suffolk. Stoley, Norfolk. Great Witchingham^ Norfolk. Little Walsingham, Norfolk. Woodbridge, Suffolk. Walsoken, Norfolk. The steps upon which these fonts stand are in some cases elaborate and beautiful, those of Little Walsingham being the most intricate in design. There can be no doubt that they would originally in each case be crowned with lofty tabernacled covers. The pedestals are usually adorned with eight figures in niches, and the bases further enriched with small representations of the four Evangelists and their symbols. All their bowls are octagonal, and consequently some other subject had to be designed for the eighth panel. In nine cases the Crucifixion forms the subject in the eighth compartment, in seven instances the Baptism of our Lord, and on three fonts the Last Judgment. There is a single example of each of the following subjects : the Communion of the People, the Assumption, the Virgin and Child, the Holy Trinity, Our Lord in Glory, and the Martyrdom of St. Andrew at the church of St. Andrew, Melton. The eighth panel at Farningham shows a figure kneeling before a crucifix, which is probably intended for the donor of the font. In the three remaining cases the eighth compartment is either blank or hopelessly defaced. Most, if not all, of these fonts were originally elaborately coloured. Obvious traces of colour remain at Badingham, East Dereham, Nettlecombe, and West Lynn, whilst at Westhall and Great Witchingham the gilding is quite brilliant, and the red, blue, green, and black paint comparatively fresh. The details of the small groups of figures illustrating the Seven Sacraments are of much ecclesiological interest, and have been fully dealt with and illustrated by Dr. Alfred C. Fryer in the Archceological Journal (vol. Hx., March, 1902). Heraldry sometimes obtrudes itself on a font. Notwithstanding its apparent inappropriateness in connection with the administration of the initial Sacrament, its presence is of interest in suggesting the donor and date of the font. Heraldry is to be noticed on the I4th-cent. leaden font of Parham, Surrey, and on three or four others of that period. At Shelfanger, Norfolk, the arms and I70 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE initials of Adam Bosville, who died in 1360, appear on the font ; but heraldic fonts are chiefly of the next century. A particularly interesting heraldic font, giving all the alliances of the old family of Holdenby, stood in the church of Holdenby, Northants, until a " restoration " in the " seventies," when it was broken up and buried beneath its modern successor ! The arms of Archbishop Arundel (i 397-1414) appear on the font of Sittingbourne, Kent, and those of the last abbot of Whalley on Padiham font, Lanes. The following is an alphabetical list of heraldic fonts ; it makes no pretensions to be exhaustive. Unless otherwise distinguished, the fonts are all of the Perpendicular period. Ackworth, Yorks. Alnham, Northumberland (1664). Aylsham, Norfolk (shaft). Barrow, Suffolk. Breedon, Leics. 1 Burgate, Suffolk. Burwash, Sussex. Catterick, Yorks. Little Cornard, Suffolk. Coventry, H. I'rinity, Warvvicks. Crosthwaite, Cumberland (14th). Dalton-in-Furness, Lanes. Drayton Parsloe, Bucks. Dunsford, Devon. Eakring, Notts. (1674). East Ham, Essex. Fakenham, Norfolk. Featherstone, Yorks. Finchingfield, Essex (14th). Harington, Lines. Haslingden, Lanes. Heme, Kent. Howell, Lines. Hoxne, Suffolk. Ingram, Northumberland (1664). Ketteringham, Norfolk. Kettleburgh, Suffolk. Kirkhampton, Cornwall. Lesbury, Northumberland. Market Bosworth, Leics. (14th). Millom, Cumberland. Mitcham, Surrey. Mortlake, Surrey. Mountfield, Essex. North Bradley, Wilts. Padiham, Lanes. Parham, Surrey (14th). Priston, Somerset. Rackheath Magna, Norfolk (i6th) Risley, Derbs. Rolveiiden, Kent (14th). St. Goran, Cornwall. Sandwich, Kent. Sedgefield, Durham. Shelfanger, Norfolk. Sittingbourne, Kent. South Kilvington, Yorks. Staindrop, Durham. Stanton Harcourt, Oxon. Stoke-by- Nay land, Suffolk. Ufford, Suffolk. West Deeping, Lines. (13th). Winterborne Whitchurch, Dorset. Wiston, Suffolk. Woodchurch, Chester. Wybunbury, Chester. There are a few mediaeval fonts which are noteworthy through having projections from the bowl. These projections have given FONTS 171 rise to a diversity of would-be explanations of their use and origin, which are mostly futile. There are five distinct English instances, and the same explanation cannot apply to them all. The most interesting of these, and the one which has given rise to a great variety of conjectures, is that of Youlgreave, Derbs. This late Norman font, which has been frequently illustrated, possesses other noteworthy features ; the best account and pictures of it are those given by Mr. Le Blanc Smith in vol. xxvi. of the Derbyshire Archceological JotLrnal. The projection in this case takes the form of a rounded bason or stoup, a little below the level of the font rim ; it has an interior width of 9.J inches, and an interior depth of 6J inches. There can be little doubt that the use of this hollowed adjunct to the font was in connection with baptism by affusion. The usual old rubrics of the baptismal office of the Western Church ordained that when the infant was baptized by affusion, the surplus water was not to be allowed to return into the font or compartment of the font wherein was the consecrated water, but that a vessel was to be provided to receive the water running off the head of the recipient. The advantage of this can be readily understood when it is recollected that the hallowed water used to remain in the font for a long period. This is the explanation of the bequests of silver basons for the fonts that are occasionally met with in EngHsh mediaeval wills. The general modern Roman use is to have the font divided into two parts for this purpose, each with its own drain running into the earth. In cases where this is not provided, it is usual for a server to hold a bason beneath the child's head. In several churches of Brittany and Normandy, as well as in the museums of Rouen and other towns in the north of France, are early fonts with side projections for this purpose. But in all these cases such projections have wide circular basons at the top and are continued down to the base of the font or floor level, being pro- vided with a drain communicating with the soil or ground beneath. There is no drain to the font stoup at Youlgreave, and in this case it would serve to hold a movable bason, which would be carried into the churchyard and there emptied. Odiham, Hants, possesses a remarkable font, temp. Henry III., to which attention has often been directed. Round the circular bowl runs the inscription from the Vulgate, with the usual con- tractions — Aiixilium meuni a Domino qtU fecit celum et terram (Ps. cxxi. 2). The lettering is in raised letters of a bold and 172 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE slightly ornamental style of " black letter ; " this kind of text is very exceptional for I3th-cent. work, and the suggestion that the lettering was done at a later date may possibly be correct. The character and method of this inscription is unique in English fonts, but its special peculiarity remains to be noticed. From the upper part of the bowl there is a bracket-like projection, in the top of which is an oblong hollow measuring 5 inches by 3I inches. This hollow has sloping sides, and is i| inches deep. At each end is a circular hole which is carried through the stonework at an acute angle, terminating in similar small holes lower down on the outer surface of the bracket. There have been various surmises as to the original use or intention of this bracket. Of late years it has been generally maintained that it was to serve for baptism by affusion, after the same fashion as the attached stoup of Youlgreave. But the small, oblong hollow is obviously quite unfitted for any such purpose, and if a little water is poured in, it trickles down the outside of the font in two directions, after a fashion that would make its retention in any vessel placed on the ground an im- possibility. It is just possible that the Odiham projection may have served to affix a movable bracket upon which a bason could rest ; but this is improbable, for in that case the holes in the hollow would have been straight so as to readily permit of the fixing and unfixing of such a convenience. This bracket could have had no connection with the chrysmatory for the holy oils used at baptism, for the mediaeval chrysmatory was of very small dimensions, and held in the hand of a server. On the whole by far the most likely use for this bracket was to serve as a support for the hinges of a font-cover of unusual solidity of structure. The I4th-cent. font of Pitsford, Northants, is well engraved by Paley. This font has a plain, solid, three-sided ledge projecting immediately from the rim of the octagonal font, and pierced with several small circular holes. It is probable that these holes and the ledge were intended to sustain a movable rest of wood or metal for the support of the affusion bason, or (which is more unlikely) for a bracket to hold the office book. At St. Michael's, Sutton Bonnington, Notts., is a fourth of these fonts with projections cut out of the solid stone. This well-finished I4th-cent. octagonal font has its original step and priest's stone. It stands 4 feet high, and has a diameter of 2 feet 6 inches. There are three projecting brackets ; the one on the celebrant's left has a FONTS 173 ST. MICHAEL'S, SUTTON BONNINGTON, NOTTS. flat surface level with the font rim 9 inches by 8 inches ; the two smaller ones, on the east and south sides of the font, are 6 inches across. On the larger bracket would rest the affusion bowl in the proper place, for the infant's head would rest on the priest's left arm, whilst the two other pro- jections might be convenient for the salt and candle, which were accessories of the full Western rite of baptism. The font of Rainham, Es- sex, has a circular Norman bowl with a shaft of later date. On one side there is a small semicircular projection, level with the rim of the font, standing out a little distance ; whilst on the opposite side is a small portion of another similar projection, most of which has been broken away. The I3th-cent. font of Raunds, Northants, has a carved ram's head projecting from the rim, the top of which, when perfect, may possibly have served as a rest. Several other of our old fonts show marks or traces whence original projections seem to have been broken off. With regard to post- Reformation fonts, there are just a few dated examples of the long reign of Elizabeth. Such are Ellesmere, Salop., 1569, and Edlington, Staffs., 1590. Much honour was done to the fonts in the way of more or less comely covers during the time of James I., but very few were then constructed. The font of Whixall, Salop., bears the date 1608. At Byford, Herefords., is a font of the time of Charles I., dated 1638, and there is another of the following year at Rackheath Magna, Norfolk. When the Puritans gained the ascendancy during the Common- wealth, the use of fonts was forbidden ; their place was to be taken by a mere bason. Where churchwarden accounts of this period are extant, reference is often made to this mean change. Thus at Wilmslow, Chester, the lead lining of the old font was sold for 3^-. ; and in 1647 "iron work to sett the bason in" cost 5^"., whilst 2s. M, was paid for " a pewter bason for to baptize in." The same 174 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE parish accounts show that lys. 8d, was spent on a new font in 1660, and 9^". on a cover in 166 1. The churchwarden accounts of Aldwincle St. Peter's, Northants, show that a bason was bought for 6d. in 1655, and in 1657 the churchwardens "sould the ffont for iij^. vjV." In 1662 they had to spend £1 los. 2d. in setting it up again. The dated fonts of the early days of the Restoration of both the Church and the Monarchy are numerous. Those of the year 1662 naturally predominate, as that was the time when loyalty to the Prayer-book, by those holding benefices, was made obligatory. The following list includes many dated Restoration fonts to be found in different parts of the kingdom, but it is probably less than a quarter of the whole number : — 1660. Edwalton, Notts. ,, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Notts. „ Wysall, Notts. „ Flinton, Notts. „ Flawborough, Notts. „ North Winfield, Derbs. 1 66 1. Probus, Cornwall. „ Lurgashall, Sussex. „ Wakefield, W. R. Yorks. „ Ormskirk, Lanes. „ Pleasley, Derbs. 1662. Cropwell, Notts. „ East Bridgford, Notts. „ Sibthorp, Notts. „ Whatton, Notts. „ Shelford, Notts. ,, Orston, Notts. „ Tithby, Notts. 1662. Scarrington, Notts. „ Distington, Cumberland. „ North Chapel, Sussex. „ Ecclesfield, W. R. Yorks. „ Sandal, W. R. Yorks. „ Burneston, E. R. Yorks. ,, Ainderby Steeple, E. R.Yorks. ,, Northallerton, E. R. Yorks. „ Wensley, E. R. Yorks. „ Great Harwood, Lanes. „ Wirksworth, Derbs. „ Fiiidern, Derbs. „ Skirkbeck, Lines. ,, Astbury, Chester. 1663. Marske, E. R. Yorks. „. Bunbury, Chester. „ Ripple, Kent. „ Ackworth, W. R. Yorks. There are also one or two dated fonts of the years 1664 and 1665. Some of these fonts are of rude workmanship, but others, notably a Nottinghamshire group, of very similar design, display decided merit. The most striking Restoration font in England is the one in Orston church, Notts., which is a fine piece of carving, partly after a mediaeval model, but at the same time showing con- siderable originality. The arrangement of the three tulips — probably emblematic of the Trinity — is, wQ should think, unique. FONTS 175 Another Restoration font which we also consider worth illustrating is that of Wirksworth, Derbs. In this case, although the true prin- ciples of design are set at defiance by a medley of varied orna- ments, the result is not unpleasant, for it is quite obvious that the sculptor did the very best of which he was capable to adorn the House of God. These fonts are mostly octagonal, but those of Lurgashall and North Chapel, Sussex, are square and of local Petworth marble. In a few instances the date 1660 or 1662, accompanied by ORSTON, NOTTS. churchwarden initials, are to be found on far older fonts, signalizing the date when they were brought back into the church after Puritan ejection. This is the case with the Norman font of Parwich, Derbs., and with the i5th-cent. font of Church Layton, Leics. Some later fonts of the same century are also dated. Thus 1674 appears on the font of Eakring, Notts. ; 1 681 at Stoke Albany, Northants ; and 1686 on those of Pickhill, E. R. Yorks., and Lupton, Westmoreland. The use of anything save a proper font for baptism was for- bidden by Elizabeth in 1584, and is strictly prohibited by the reformed Canon of the Church of England ; but the use of mere basons by the Puritans obtained such a hold that this irreverent 176 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE custom is even yet in use in a few out-of-the-way parishes, where small bowls of various kinds are introduced into the font to save the trouble of heavier water-carrying. Only a few years ago a shallow Wedgwood saucer, with a cover, the whole precisely like a muffin dish, was specially made for the purpose ; but it is very rarely now seen. Just now and again such font basons were of costly material. At Audlem, Chester, there is a silver font bowl thus inscribed — WIRKSWORTH, DERBS. For the more decent celebration of the Holy Sacrament of Baptism in the Parish Church of Audlem. This Bason is humbly dedicated to the Font there by Ann Evans, widow of Wm. Evans M.A., xxxv years master of the Free School of the said Parish, out of her regard to her said late Husband's intentions, thd not reqtiired by his will, 1744. In Sir Stephen Glynne's notes on Kent churches, taken about 1835, occurs the following entry under Cranbrook :— FONTS 177 '* On the south side of the nave is what is scarce to be found in any other church — a square baptistery of stone for the purpose of immersing such Baptists as desire to enter the communion of the church; it was erected in 1725 by the Revd. John Johnson, Vicar, and resembles a bath with a descent of several steps. It is said only to have been used twice." The subject of font inscription is sufficiently interesting to call for special treatment, particularly as several of them are difficult to decipher. The appropriate Greek palindromical lines which read the same either way — Nl^^ON ANOMHMA MH MONAN 04^IN ('* Wash my sin and not my face only ") appear on many fonts. Such are Worlingworth, Suffolk ; Dedham, Hadleigh, and Harlow, Essex; Higham, Longley Castle (private chapel), Knapton (font cover), Norfolk ; Kinnerley (a fragment), and Melverley, Salop. ; Melton Mowbray, Leics. ; Nottingham, St. Mary's; and Sandbach, Chester (1667). The same also appears on the more recent fonts of Leominster ; of St. Martin's, Ludgate, London ; and of Dulwich College chapel. At Hook Norton, Oxon., is a font with the names of Sagittarius, Adam, and Eve inscribed. The lead font of Brookland, Kent, has the names of the months and of the signs of the Zodiac. The Norman font of Stoneleigh, Warwicks., has the names of the Twelve Apostles ; and that of Stanton Fitzwarren, Wilts., the names of the depicted Virtues and Vices. The fonts of Severnstoke, Worcs., and of Rushton All Saints, Northants, have the whole alphabet inscribed on the margin of the flat part of the top of the bowl. These alphabets were probably used by the parish priest or chaplain for what we should now call " Sunday-school " purposes. The following collection of inscriptions on English fonts and font-covers are arranged in alphabetical order. The inscriptions on the pre-Norman fonts of Little Billing and Potterne have already been given. The font at Acle, Norfolk, retained until time of " restoration " a great deal of its original colouring and gilding ; round the base is this inscription — Orate pro animabics qui istum fontem in honore dei fieri fecer tint, Anno dni Millimo cccc decimo. 178 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE Adderley, Salop., I2th-cent. sculpture. Hie male primus homo Fruitur cu?n conjiige porno. (" Here wickedly the first man enjoys the apple with his wife.") Ackworth, Yorks. Baptisterium bello phanaticorum dirutuni dentLO erecUiin Tho: Bradley D.D. rector e, H.A., T.C. gardianiSy 1663. St. Anthony-in-Kerrier, Cornwall, the font has the inscription — Ecce karissimi de deo vera baptizabimtur spirittt sancto, with the initials Q.P., B.M., B.V., and P.R. in pairs, between four shield- bearing angels. The cover of the Early English font at Bentworth, Hants, is of a curious gabled shape with a terminal ball, and round the edge appears in large capitals, I am geven hi Martha Hunt. Anno 1605. Beverley St. Mary's, Yorks. Pray for the soiUes of Wyllm Feryffaxe draper and his wyvis whiche made this Font of his p'per costes the X day of Marche ye yere of our Lord MDXXX. The font of Blythburgh, Suffolk, is raised upon three high octagonal stone steps, inscribed with — Orate pro aiabs Johne Masin et Katei'ine uxoris ejus . . . (remainder quite illegible, but probably merely stating that John and Katherine gave the font). Bolton-juxta-Bowland, Yorks. This octagon font of grey marble has a shield of arms on each face, namely, Tempest, Hamerton, Pudsay and Layton, Pudsay, Banks, Pudsay, Tunstall, and Percy. On a fillet of brass let into the marble is the inscrip- tion — Orate p' aiabit Dni Radulphi Pudsay Milif et Dne Edw^ne uxor ejus ac Dni Wilt Pudsay filii eorti qtcond' rector huf ecclie. William Pudsay was rector of Bolton from 1448 to 1507. Bootle, Cumberland. The I4th-cent. font bears — In nomine patriy et filii et spirit' sacti' a. Bourne, Lines. SUp ome nom I. H. C. est noTh qde. Bradley, Lines., 14th cent. Pater Noster^ Ave Maria^ and Criede, Leren ye chyld yt es nede. Bridekirk, Cumberland. This famous I2th-cent. font is finely sculptured. On the south front is a remarkable inscription which long exercised the ingenuity of antiquaries. The difficulty was supposed to be solved in the i8th cent, when a communication FONTS 179 was made to the Society of Antiquaries {Archceologia, ii. 132) interpreting the words to mean — *' Here Skard was converted and to this man's example were the Danes brought " ! But the inscription, in the light of later scholarship, really reads — That is- Rikarth he me hvrokte 6^ to this merthe gernr me brokte. Richard he me wrought And to this beauty carefully me brought. The letters show, says Professor Stephen, " a strange intermixture of old Northern and Scandinavian and old English staves and bind- Runes." The dialect is also mixed, early North English with a touch of Scandinavian. Its date is probably of the 12th cent. ; Professor Stephen suggests that Richard who carved the font may have been the architect of that name who was master of the works to Bishop Pudsey during the improvements at Norham Castle, A.D. 1 1 50-70. The font is rectangular ; all four sides are elabor- ately sculptured. On the face with the inscription, Richard is represented working at the foliage. Bubwith, E. R. Yorks. Round the bowl is inscribed — Pons de Imbird. Burgate, Suffolk. On the upper step — [Orate pro aniuiabus] Wiirmi Burgate militis et dne Elionere uxoris eius qui istum fontem fier-i fecerunt. Sir W. Burgate died in 1409. Canterbury, Cathedral church. On the I7th-cent. elaborate font-cover are a series of texts, etc. (see Dr. Cox's Canterb?tryy 187, 188). At Castor near Norwich, the font has this inscription round the base — Orate f fratribus et sororibiis ac bene/ 'tor ibjis glide scl iohis baptlste de castre. Catterack, E. R. Yorks., has round the shaft the words Clar Fon, for "clean fountain." Chelmorton, Derbs. The greatest puzzle among English font inscriptions is at the church of St. John Baptist, Chelmorton. It is an octagon i5th-cent. font, bearing a small letter or design on each face. The first and third of these figures seem to be sword- hilts, and are conjectured to be emblems of martyrdom, whilst the O between them may stand for a circle, an emblem of the Holy Trinity. The late Mr. Greaves, Q.C., in a learned article in the Derbyshire Archceologlcal Joiimal (vol. i., 1879), supposes that the i8o ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE other letters are initials for " Salus ex baptismate Sancti Johannis martyris "—that is, " Salvation (is) from the baptism of St. John the Martyr." This explanation is, however, more ingenious than convincing, and it is more likely that the letters have some con- nection with the name or names of the donor. The font of Chillingham, Northumberland, moved here from Ancroft church, has inscribed on the bowl— 6^^^ bless this Church -IT Hr An Domi. 1670. The octagon font of Chipping, Lanes., bears at the base the initial letters of the Latin version of the Hail Mary. Covenham St. Bartholomew, Lines. This I5th-cent. octagon font has the initials W. A. on one of the panels ; supposed to stand for William Askew, the donor. The font of Cranstock, Cornwall, bears the date inscription of An' n M'CCCC Ixxiiif. Crosthwaite, Cumberland. The font, of latter part of 14th cent., is an octagon. The four principal faces of the bowl bear shields, the other four ornamental devices of masks and foliage. On the chamfered edge below the panels is a black letter inscription which is a good deal mutilated. Shield one bears emblems of Holy Trinity, and below it S\cMt'.\ see : trinitatis ; shield two a lily pot, and Scut: m'ris : dei ; shield of England and France, and Sc : reg' A nglie ; shield of symbols, of the Passion, and .S"^ .* d'^ii : Xpi. The words below the four other panels beg for prayer for a former vicar, who probably bequeathed money for the making of this font — Orate : p : dia : dni : Thorn : deskhede : olim : ecclesie : hums : vicarii. The church of Darsham, Suffolk, has a characteristic East Anglian font of octagonal design. Lions appear on the alternate panels, between the symbol of the Trinity, the arms of the Con- fessor, the three crowns of East Anglia, and the symbols of the Passion. Round the circular step on which the font stands is the following legend, now much worn, but cited as given in Suckling's History of Suffolk (1848) — Orate pro anima Dni Galfri Symond, rector is de Bradwell^ qui istum fontem fieri fecit in honor e Dei. Geoffrey Symonds, a native of this village, was rector of Bradwell, 1404. Dorton, Bucks. The font cover is inscribed — A gifte to butyfie the House of God. Thomas Harenson, A.D. 1631. FONTS i8i The octagon font of Dunsby, Lines., has a most puzzling inscrip- tion on its panels. On one panel are five small circles, the centre one containing the letter i, which seems to be intended to be used in reiteration with the surrounding consonants ; probably it stands for In pjHnicipio. On other panels are the monograms of Jesus and Christ, and the words baptista and Maria, The font of East Ham, Essex, is a white marble bason of singularly bad proportions, bearing the quartered arms of Higham, and this inscription round the rim — The gift of S"" Richard Heigham, Knight, to this parish of East ham, A'' D''\ 1639. The octagonal font of Elmswell, Suffolk (D.), is a fine one, supported on four eagles ; five of the panels are charged with the letters H., E., D., G., F. consecutively, probably the name of the donor. Featherstone, Yorks. Johe's de Baghill et Katerina iixsor ejus. Gaywood, Norfolk. A font of Gothic design, but of post-Refor- mation date. On four of the eight sides are these inscriptions — Qui crediderit et baptizatus fuerit salvus erit. Christum induistis quot quot baptizati estis. Voce pater natus corpore flamen ave. Mat. 3. / am thy God and the God of thy seede. Gen. Goodmanham, Yorks., temp. Henry VHI. Wyht owt [doubte d\ll may be saved Of yor charete pra for them yt yis font mayd. Robert clevying pson. Robert Appilton. Ave maria grd plena dns tecu bndicta tu in mil. lade help. Ihs. Robert Clevying was rector from 1522 to 1565. On the eighth panel of the Seven Sacraments font at Gorleston, Suffolk, is a representation of the Last Judgment, and over it the partially defaced legend, Surgite mortui venite ad judicium. Great Greenford, Middlesex, has a font thus inscribed — Ex dono domincs Franciscce Coston^ viducs^ nuper defunctce^ 1638. Haltwhistle, Northumberland. On the upper edge of the hexagon bowl is cut R. P. Jtily the 2yth 1676. Robert Priest man was vicar at that date ; but the font is pre-Reformation, and the inscription can only refer to its restoration. The handsome font of Hessett, Suffolk, has a " kneeling stone " to the west of the plinth. Upon the three sides is the following i82 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE inscription : Orate pro animahs rti hoo et augnetis uxis ejus q isttim fontem fieri fecerunt. The will of Robert Hoo was proved in 1510 ; in it he mentions " myn wyf Augnes." The font of St. Mary's, Ipswich, bears the words Sal et Saliva. In the old rite of baptism, as still used by the Western Church under the Roman obedience, salt, over which an exorcism is used, is placed in the mouth of the child with an appropriate prayer ; and the ears and nostrils are touched with saliva. St. Ives, Cornwall, 1 3th cent. Omnes baptizate gentes. Keysoe, Beds., 13th cent. The only Norman-French font inscription — Trestui ke par hici passerui Pur le alme Warel prieu Ke Deu par sa grace Verrey merci li face. Am. ("Pause, whoever passes by this spot, and pray for the soul of Warel, that God by His grace may grant him true mercy. Amen.") Kelling, Norfolk. Remains of inscription for souls of . . . de Kelling and Beatrice his wife. Kilvington, E. R. Yorks. At the base — Dominus Thomas le Scrope et Elizabeth uxor ejus. Kirton, Lines. Round the base of this font is the inscription — Orate pro aia Alaric Burton qui fontem istum fieri fecit A, D. MCCCL V. Landewednack, Cornwall. This font, c. 1400, bears the in- scription — Ric. Bolham me fecit, Bolham was a former rector. An exceptional inscription is on the elaborately decorated early Norman font of LuUington, Somerset ; it bears the following in Roman letters : In Hoc Fontu sacro pereunt delicto lavacro. Traces of a further inscription on the edge are now indecipherable. Maidstone, All Saints, Kent. The i/th-cent. font bears the royal arms and also those of the family of Aston. Over the former are the words, Feare God^ Honour ye King. The single circular step on which the font at Middleton, Suffolk, rests, bears a much-worn black-letter inscription. Recent careful rubbings have resulted in bringing to light an interesting English distich — Cryst mote us spede And helpe alle at nede, Newark, Notts. Round the base— G?r/2^ rei nati sunt hoc in FONTS 183 Deo fonte renati. The word "Deo" is in different characters, and probably a later insertion. On a pillar adjoining is a brass tablet with this inscription — This Font was demolished by the Rebels ^ May 9, 1646, and rebuilt by the charity of Nicholas Ridley in 1660. Nuffield font, Oxon., is plain tub-shaped, and has the following inscription in Lombardic characters round the upper part : — \^Fo7t\ te sacro latum vel nmndat gracia totum Vel non est sacramenti muitdacio plena. Odiham, Hants. See previous account. Parham, Sussex. I. H. C. N. A. Z. A. R. (Jesus of Nazareth), repeated. Potterne, Wilts. Saxon inscription already cited. Quadring, Lines. Round the base of this font is the inscrip- tion — Orate pro aia Roberti Perci qui istnm fontem fieri fecit, Priston, Somerset, is an heraldic font, but bears on two of the bowl panels W. Long ; the arms of Long also appear on the font, of which he was clearly the donor. Rackheath Magna, Norfolk. The hexagonal font bears the arms of Pettus, and is adorned after a debased Renaissance fashion with cherubs. It is inscribed — B, P. ornavit 1639. Rochester, St. Nicholas. C. R. I. S. T L A. N. A single capital letter on each of the eight faces. Saham Toney, Norfolk. On beautiful font cover — Lavaci^um Regenerationis Johannes Ives, mtper de Saham, insigne hoc pietatis Slice testimonium Deo et ecclesice suce moriens legavit. Anno Domini, 1631. The collegiate church of St. Mary, Stafford, has a remarkable early font with inscriptions in Lombardic capitals, which have given rise to much discussion. The first inscription, just above the lions which support the bowl, reads — Discretus non es si non fugis ecce leones. The other runs round the rim and is partly illegible — + Tu : de : Jerusalem Ror . . . alem Me : faciens : talem Tarn : pulchrum. : tarn : specialem. It has been suggested that the second line originally ran— Rorem niihi das genialem. Salle, Norfolk. On the lower step is — Orate pro animabus Thome Luce et , , . tixoris ejus, et Roberti filii eorurn capellani, etc. i84 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE Saltwood, Kent. On one of the panels is a shield with the two words — Jehsu . Mary a. Shorwell, I. of Wight. The font cover, the gift of Sir John Leigh, c. 1620, has this inscription — And the Holy Ghost descended in bodily shape like a dove upon him. Liike 3, ve, 22. Southacre, Norfolk. On the cover — Ot^ate p, aia Mri Rici Gotts et dni Galefridi baker Rectoris htcj [ecclie qui hoc] opics fieri fecer tint. South Ormsby, Lines., has at the base the names of the donors Rudolph Bolle and his wife. Stanton Fitzwarren, Wilts. See under Wiltshire fonts for this lettering. Stixwold, Lines. On this octagonal font are the Evangelistic symbols with their respective names on scrolls. In the church of Stratford Tony, Wilts., is a I3th-cent. font ; it is a rude stone bowl, but has a Purbeck marble shaft. Round the top of the bowl is an inscription, of which only the words Hie sistat can now be discerned. On the font cover of Terrington St. Clement, Norfolk, are paintings of the baptism, temptation and fasting of our Lord, with the inscription — Voce Pater , Natus Corpore, Flamen Ave — that is, " The Father (revealed) by the voice, the Son by the body, the Spirit by the bird." Threckingham, Lines. Ave Maria gracice plena dominus tecum. (In an abbreviated form.) Tilney All Saints, Norfolk. Same as Gaywood. Walsingham, New, Norfolk. Font cover (now in a loft) bears — Ex dono Jane domince Sidney, in pice mentis indicium. Walpole St. Peter, Norfolk. Thynk and Thank repeated round bowl. At base — Remember Whetorn Johannes sometime parson here, 1532. Walsoken, Norfolk, 1544. Remember the soul of S. Honyter and Margaret his wife, and John Beforth, chaplain, Wensley, N. R. Yorks. Church Masters looke to your charges, with date 1662 and initials cut on the late Perpendicular font when restored to the church after the Puritan disruption. On the granite font of St. Winnow, Cornwall, is inscribed — Ecce charissimi de deo vero baptizabuntur spirtu sancto. The like inscription appears on two other fonts of this county. Wold Newton, Lines., has a partially legible inscription in memory of its donors, John and Joan Curteys. FONTS 185 Wrangle, Lines. On the cover — Ric, Bailey Vicar. 1724. York, St. Martin's, Coney Street. Richard Speight and Richard Mancklin Church Wardens. An'^ Dom 1717, on handsome cover. Occasionally more modern fonts have more or less appropriate inscriptions. The quaintest English font inscription — probably the quaintest in all Christendom — is the one to be seen at Tollesbury, Essex, an interesting church retaining much pre-Norman work. The small octagonal font, 2 feet in diameter and 3 feet high, bears round the margin of the bowl, in very plain lettering — Good people all I pray take care That in ye church you doe not sware As this man did. An entry among the baptisms of the parish register explains the mystery — "August 30, 17 18. — Elizabeth, daughter of Robert and Eliza Wood, being ye first childe whom was baptized in the New Font which was bought out of five pounds paid by John Norman, sen., who some few months before came drunk into ye church and cursed and talked loud in the time of Divine service, to prevent his being prosecuted for which he paid by agreement the above said five pounds. Note that the wise rythmes on the font were put there by the sole order of Robert Joyce then churchwarden." County Lists [These lists aim at giving the principal fonts of each county ; an * is attached to the more noteworthy examples.] Bedfordshire In this county no particular style or period of fonts predomi- nates. There are a few good examples of each. Flitwick is a good Norman font ; what is supposed to have been its original colouring has been restored to it. Houghton Regis has a fine font of the same period. Studham font, illustrated in vol. vi. of the Reliquary and Illustrated Archceologisty is boldly enriched with Transitional foliage. The massive Early English font at Keysoe, with the remarkable Norman- French inscription at the base (already cited), is the only Bedfordshire example engraved by Paley. Tingrith has a good font of this period on clustered columns, and the adjacent church of Streatley affords another example. i86 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE Of I4th-cent. fonts, the adjacent churches of Stagsden and Goldington have good examples, the former curiously carved. Arlsey is the most remarkable font of the next century. The sculptures in niches illustrate the Fall, the Crucifixion, the Resur- rection, and the Mouth of Hell ; round the stem are ecclesiastics ; unfortunately it is much mutilated. Norman. — Carlton *, Crawley, Flitwick, Houghton Regis, Potton, Puddington *, Studham * (Transition). Early English. — Battleden, Challington, Eaton Bray *, Eversholt, P^arndish, Felmersham, Great Barford, Harold, Keysoe '"'^ Leighton Buzzard, Stanbridge, Stevington, Streatley *, Studham ""', Tilsworth, Tingrith, Turvey. Decorated. — Bedford St. Paul's, Goldington *, Houghton Conquest ''', Kempstone, Luton, Ridgemont, Stagsden '"", Sutton. Perpendicular. — Arlsey *, Bletsoe, Bronham, Caddington, Clifton, Colm- worth, Cranfield, Dunton, Eaton Socon, Elstow (early), Harlington, Marston Mortaine, Oakley *, Odell, Sandy, Sharnbrook, Stepingleigh, Stotfold, Wilden, Wrestlingworth. Berkshire The Norman fonts are numerous, and include the lead example at Woolhampton. The handsome Transition font of West Shefford is engraved by Paley. Avington, early Norman, ^as thirteen figures round it, supposed to be the Twelve Apostles and Judas tempted by the Fiend. Among the 1 3th-cent. fonts is one of lead at Childrey. Wantage is a good example of this century, with the dog-tooth ornament. Ardington font bears the ball-flower moulding of the Decorated period. The massive late I5th-cent. octagon font of Hurley is also engraved by Paley. Norman. — Aston Upthorpe, Avington '"'j Bright Walton, Catmore, Clewer, Drayton, Eaton Hastings, Enborne, Finchhamstead *, Great ShefFord *, Hambledon, Letcombe Regis, Lockinge, Pinley '"", Sulhampstead Abbas, Sutton Courtney, Welford, West Shefford, Sparsholt, Wool- hampton (lead). Early English. — Beedon, Charney, Childrey (lead), Coleshill, Didcot, Eaton Hastings, Englefield *, Harwell, Hatford '", Letcombe Basset, Longworth, Lyford, Shrivenham *, Sutton Courtney, Wantage, Winterbourn. FONTS 187 Decorated. — Ardington *, Buckland *, East Hampstead, Fyfield, North Moreton, Shillingford, Shottesbrook. Perpendicular. — Ashbury^ Blewbury, Bray *, Chieveley, Compton Beau- champ *, Denchworth *, Hagbourne, Hurley '"' ; Readings St. Mary and St. Lawrence * ; Shalbourne, Steventon, Thatcham, Wokingham, Yattendon. Buckinghamshire There are upwards of seventy Norman fonts in this county. Those of Great Kimble, Little Missenden, Risborough Priors, and Bledlow are all of chalice shape and grooved ; they are obviously done by the same workman or workmen. The circular bowl of Stone is rudely sculptured with salamander and other curious figures. Stoke Hammond font is supported by four detached shafts and a central stem. There are a few good instances of each of the three Gothic periods. The Early English fonts are plain examples. The heraldic I4th-cent. font at Drayton Parsloe is of much merit. Leckhampstead font, of late I4th-cent. date, has curious carvings on the eight panels, two of them representing the Blessed Virgin and St. Katharine. Simpson gives a beautiful engraving of it. Nortnan. — Aylesbury (late), Castlethorpe, Caversfield, Chenies, Cuddington Drayton Beauchamp, Grandborough, Haddenham, Hammond Stoke, Hawridge *, Hitchenden, Horton, Hughenden, Great Kimble, Oving, Pitstone, Risborough Priors *, Stoke Goldington *, Stoke Ham- mond, Stoke Regis, Stone * (formerly at Hampstead Noons), Stewkley, Turville *, Upton. ^ Early English. — Choulesbury *, Newton Longueville, RadclifFe, Slapton *, Weston Underwood, Whaddon. Decorated. — Astwood *, Cheddington, Chilton *, Drayton Parsloe "", Elles- borough, Long Crendon *, North Marston '^ , Waddesdon. Perpendicular. — Brickhill Bow, Ditton *, Leckhampstead, Princes Ris- borough, Wing *. Ca m bridges hire There is a considerable admixture of styles and periods among the fonts of this county. Among the best may be named the Norman examples of St. Peter's, Cambridge, and Coton ; the Early English ones of Wentworth and Witcham ; the Decorated of Kings- ton and Long Stanton ; and the Perpendicular of Trumpington, i88 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE Haddenham, Isleham, and Stetchworth. There are about fifty of this last period ; in many of the churches there are plain octagon fonts, rather difficult to date, but some of them are 14th cent. Simpson illustrates the well-designed I5th-cent. font of Over, which he styles "eminently beautiful." The eight panels have shields surmounted by cinquefoil tracery, and the mouldings are enriched with squared flowers. Paley illustrates the much more elaborate example of the same century at Leverington, terming it "magnificent, singularly rich and beautiful ; " there are seated figures in the eight niches of the bowl, and the same number of standing figures round the shaft. Norman, — Arrington, Cambridge St. Peter's '^^ Coton *, Croydon, Great Abington, Great Wilbraham *, Guilden Morden, Hinxton *, Melbourne, Oakington (early), Pampisford, Shepreth *, Stuntney *, Thriplow, Wimpole. Early English. — Barnwell, Barrington, Cherry Hinton, Doddington *, Foxton, Little Abington, Newton *, Oakington *, Orwell, Wentworth *j Westley Waterless, Whittlesford, Wilburton, Witcham *. Decorated. — Chettisham *, Coveney, Downham, Fen Drayton, Kingston *, Long Stanton All Saints. Perpendicular. — Bartlow ; Cambridge^ St. Edward * and St. Mary the Less * ; Carlton *, Caxton, Haddenham *, Histon *, Isleham *, Leverington *, March, Newmarket *, Quy, Stetchworth *, Swavesey *, Trumpington *, Tydd *, Whaddon. Cheshire has but few old fonts. Many of the old churches have been rebuilt, or modernized at evil periods. Moreover, Puritanism assumed a specially destructive form in this county and in Lancashire. Of the few old fonts, some have accidentally come to light from the places where they had been buried to escape malevolent treatment during the Commonwealth period. The Norman font of Grappenhall was found under the floor in 1874. The I4th-cent. font of Alderley, now in the churchyard, was disinterred about 1830. On the other hand, the font of Wilmslow, of the same century, has recently been banished to the churchyard to make room for a modern successor. The I5th-cent. font of Sandbach is interesting on account of its inscription, which has already been cited. At Woodchurch is a good octagonal font of Perpendicular style, having four shields with the symbols of the FONTS 189 Passion. The mediaeval fonts of the Hundred of Wirral are well illustrated and described in vol. xvii. of the Lancashire and Cheshire Historical Society s Proceedings. The county, however, possesses by far the oldest font at present in use in England, namely, that of Chester cathedral, brought in recent years from North Italy. It is a beautiful work of art, and possibly dates from the 8th cent. {Gloticester and Bristol Archceo- logical Society's Transactions^ xi.). The font of Marton is remarkable. It is a large leaden four-sided bason, with wooden supports, on a stone base, and enclosed in wood, with wood and iron cover. It is thus described in Mr. Atkinson's additions (1893) to Sir Stephen Glynne's notes. But this strange and incongruous pretext for a font must be modern, for Sir Stephen Glynne, in 1853, entered "the font a plain octagonal bowl." We suppose the old octagon font was swept away during a restoration of 187 1. It would not have been worth while noting this " font " in any way, only it has more than once, of late years, been blunderingly added to the list of old lead fonts. Norman. — Bebington (later base), Birkenhead (fragment), Burton, Eastham, Grappenhall, Mottram (rude, early), Wallasey *. Early English. — Great Budworth *, Prestbury. Decorated. — Alderley, Tilston ""*, Wilmslow. Perpendicular. — Astbury, Barthomley, Davenham, Gowsworth, Marbury, Great Nestor (broken), Over, Sandbach * , Shotwick, Witton, Wood- church *, Wybunbury. Cornwall is emphatically the part of England where beautifully designed Norman fonts abound. To attempt to describe and group them after a thorough fashion would require a volume. Only a few remarks can be here offered. Paley so fully recognized the merit and diversity of the fonts of this county that he gives engravings of twelve, viz. (Norman) Boconnoc, St. Germans, Lanreath, Mevagissey, and Perranzabuloe ; (Transition) Bodmin and St. Cuthbert ; (Early English) Lanteglos and Lostwithiel ; and (Perpendicular) St. Goran and St. Neot. Dragons or salamanders occur on several of the Cornish fonts, as at St. Kea, St. Sampson, Southill, and Luxulyan. At I90 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE Tintagel serpents twine round the shafts at the angles, and above them are crosses. MEVAGISSEY, CORNWALL Two of the good series of Norman fonts in the south-east of this county are of exceptionally fine and unusual design — those of BODMIN, CORNWALL St. Stephen and of Maker, the latter of which was brought here from St. Merryn, near Padstow, when the font of the ruined church FONTS 191 of St. Constantine obtained shelter at St. Merryn. They have squared bowls richly ornamented on the same plan as that of Bodmin. The cup-shaped lower part of the bowl is supported on a circular shaft, but four detached shafts stand at the angles, with human head capitals projecting from the rim of the bowl. Cal- lington and Landrake have handsome fonts somewhat resembhng the two first mentioned ; the bowls are squared at the top and have human heads at the angles, but no shafts proceeding from them. There are other fonts of this plan at Alternon and Southill. Fowey has a handsome cup-shaped Norman font, rather small for the church, which is strikingly like that of Bishopsteignton, Devon. At Lanteglos, Lansallos, St. Cleer, and St. Martin are square fonts supported on five shafts, which are Late Norman, or, as some would term them. Transition ; the first of these is a particularly good example. At Lansallos there is also preserved half of an early round Norman font, which has a cable moulding. The material of the Cornish fonts varies. Granite, though so hard to work, occurs from time to time. This is the material of the I5th-cent. inscribed font of Landewednack, already mentioned. Caen stone was now and again brought over the seas. The Cornish church-builders found certain material to hand for some of their better designs, which, though nearly as durable as granite and impervious to their often salt-laden atmosphere, was more easily worked. The student of churches of the north-east of the county will find three different kinds of stone of the locality thus used — Catacleuse, Polyphant, and Tintagel green-stone. The circular font of the church of Forrabury is of green-stone. The later font of St. Teath is also of that material. The close-textured Polyphant stone is found on the moors between Launceston and Bodmin. The bowl of the font of the church of St. Mabyn is of Polyphant stone, and in the same church is a bracket of that material. The stone, however, which is more commonly used for enriched effects, especially of doorways and their spandrels, comes from the Catacleuse cliffs, on the north side of the Trevose headland below Padstow. It is a dark stone of exceeding durability. Carvings executed in this material, both outside and inside churches, are often as fresh in their details as when cut between four and five centuries ago. The nearest church to these cliffs now standing is the parish church of St. Merryn. The arcade which separates the 192 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE nave from the south aisle consists of seven four-centred arches, which, with the piers, are worked throughout in Catacleuse stone. They have of recent years been rightly cleansed from the paint that disfigured them. The font is a beautiful example of work in this stone. It rests on a circular shaft and on four small octagonal pillars, with shield-bearing angels as their capitals; figures, apparently intended for the Apostles, occupy niches round the bowl. This font was brought here about fifty years ago from the ruined small church of St. Constantine, much nearer the cliff. The former font of St. Merryn was of Caen stone, and was removed at the same time to the church of Maker. The font of St. Breock is also of Catacleuse stone. In an interesting paper by Dr. Fryer on " Transitional Norman Fonts," which appeared in the Journal of the British Archaeological Association of 1 901, the north-east Cornwall fonts of Alternon, Callington, Jacobstow, Landrake, Laneast, Launceston (St. Thomas), Lawhitton, and Warbstow, are grouped together and illustrated. They have all squared bowls, with heads at the angles, and geometrical circular patterns on the sides. Lostwithiel font is sufficiently remarkable to deserve extended notice, more particularly as so much that is extravagant and incorrect has been written about it. This large I4th-cent. octagonal font of Pentewan stone has a diameter of 33 inches, and stands 47 inches high. The bold carvings on the different faces are not a little remarkable. Facing east is the rood with Sts. Mary and John. Next comes, in bold relief, a huntsman on horseback, with horn held to his lips by his right hand, and falcon on his left hand ; a hound precedes the horse. The north face has two lions passant. Projecting 6 inches from the next face is a grotesque human head, with two interlaced snakes dependent from the crown, the head of each snake being just over each ear. The west face has a tracery pattern of quatre- foils. The next panel has the figures in relief of two quadrupeds ; one, perhaps a hound, seizing the other (.? a wolf) by the hind- quarters ; a figure above these is much mutilated, but is possibly a second hound. The south face is also tracery-work, chiefly quatrefoils. The eighth face represents a mitred head, which projects 4 inches ; from the ears and corners of the mouth proceeds foliage. The bowl stands on five shafts with channelled mouldings. An ingenious explanation has been offered of the series of carvings or -ME UM1VER£ n c ""' .^J FONTS 193 on the font panels as denoting the outline life of a man once given up to worldly lusts and pleasures who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, was changed and became a bishop of the Church. This is creditable to the ingenuity of the inventor, but scarcely probable. Hunting scenes are often found on early fonts, and no one would have regarded such a pursuit as an evil ; but that there is an intentional contrast between the snake-entwined head listening to all the suggestions of evil, and the regenerated mitred head bringing forth the fruit of good works, there can be but little doubt. The two lions passant doubtlessly betoken the arms of the donor of the font ; but such a charge, especially without the tinctures, is difficult to identify, for it was borne by so many families, among others by Carter of St. Columb, Cornwall. Saxon. — Lanteglos (doubtful ; in rectory garden). Norman. — Alternon^ St. Austell * (Trans.), Blisland, Bodmin *^ Boyton, St. Breward, Callington, Camborne*, St. Clether, St. Cuthbert, Eglo- shayle* (Trans.), Endellion, St. Enodoc *, St. Erney, St. Feock, Forrabury (Trans.), St. Gennys, St. Germans, St. Issey, Lamorran, Landewednack * (Trans.), Landrake, Lanreath*, Lansallos, Laun- ceston, St. Mabyn, Mevagissey, St. Michael, Minster, Perranza- buloe, Roche, Stratton, Tintagel *, Trevalga, St. Tudy, Warbstow, Whitstone. Early English. — Botus Fleming, Bradock, St. Cleer, Fowey, St. Kea, Landulph, Lanteglos *, Linkinhorne, Menheniot, Minster, Shevioc. Decorated. — St. Breock, Camborne, Columb Major *, Culmstock, St. Ives, St. John, Lostwithiel *, St. Keyne, St. Merryn (from St. Constantine), Morval, Padstow, Pillaton, Rame, Saltash, Trevalga, St. Winnow. Ferpendiadar.—Wi^l^indj Boconnoc, Crantock (1474), Duloe, St. Gorran, St. Gulval, St. Ive, Lanlivery, Michaelstow, Mullion, St. Sampson, Talland, St. Veep, Zennor. \ Cumberland, though the number of its old fonts is limited, possesses some early instances of great archaeological value. The square font of Bridekirk yields to none in all England in interest and artistic merit. It was beautifully engraved in Lysons' history of the county, and all four sides are well illustrated in Calverley's Early Sculptures of Cumberland (1899). On one side is the Baptism of Christ, and on the opposite side the expulsion o 194 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE of Adam and Eve. On a third side is an inscription of which particulars have been already set forth. The early Norman remarkable fonts of Dearham and Torpenhow are also well illustrated and described in Mr. Calverley's posthumous volume. The late I4th-cent. font at Crosthwaite had its elaborate and curious carvings fully described in the Gentleman s Magazine for 1844. It bears the arms of Edward III. The inscriptions have been already set out. The octagonal i5th-cent. font of Millom bears the arms of Huddlestone on one of the panels. Norman. — Aspatria*, Bridekirk*, Bowness, Crosby-on-Eden, Cross Canonby, Dearham*, Newton Reigny, Torpenhow, Waberthwaite, Workington.* Early English. — Harrington, Whitbeck. Decorated. — Bootle, Crosthwaite, Eskdale. Ferpefidicular. — Millom. Derbyshire The font at Wilne made from a Saxon pillar cross has already been mentioned. This county is particularly rich in Norman fonts, and has a few fairly good ones of the different Gothic periods. Three of the Derbyshire tub fonts may safely be assigned to the I ith cent., namely, those of Mellor, Tissington, and Thorpe. In the last case the sculpture has all peeled off through long exposure in the churchyard ; the two others have hunting scenes rudely depicted. There is a good group of later tub fonts, characteristically ornamented, at Chesterfield (early). Church Broughton, Kirk Hallam, and Somershall Herbert. The lead font at Ashover is a grand example of late Norman work in the metal for which the county was famed from the earliest days. The late Norman font at Youl- greave, removed here from the chapelry of Elton, with its projecting stoup, has already been discussed. Mr. G. Le Blanc Smith has some admirable well illustrated articles on the Norman fonts of the county in the Journal of the Derbyshire Archceological Society (vols, xxv.-xxvii.). There is nothing very remarkable about the Gothic fonts of the county, save the unusual size and treatment of the I4th-cent. THORPE ARNOLD, LEICESTERSHIRE ASHOVER, DERBYSHIRE MELLOR, DERBYSHIRE LENTON, NOTTS FONTS 195 example at Bakewell. Muggington is of the highly unusual hexagon shape. The late Elizabethan alabaster octagonal font at Risley is noteworthy ; it has the arms of Willoughby repeated four times. Pentrich, though a Norman font, is stamped with the date 1662, which implies the date when it was brought back into the church after its ejection by the Puritans. At Wirksworth is one of the most elaborate instances in England of a font newly made in 1662. Paley dealt generously with Derbyshire fonts, giving engravings of those of Ashbourne, Bradbourne, Bradley, Norbury, and Norton, all of which are Early English. Saxon. — Wilne (made out of a Saxon pillar cross). Norman. — Ashover *, Bradbourne, Chesterfield, Church Broughton *, Crich, Darley, Eyam, Fenny Bentley (Trans.), Haddon Chapel, Hognaston, Kirk Hallam, Longford, Marston-on-Dove, Melbourne, Mellor * (early), Ockbrook, Parwich, Pentrich, Pleasley (Trans.), Somersal Herbert *, Staveley, Thorpe, Tissington *, Winster *, Wirksworth (Trans.), Youlgreave. Early English. — Ashbourne, Aston *, BartoniBlount, Bradbourne, Bradley, Doveridge, Foremark, Norbury *, Norton *. Decorated. — Bakewell *, Elvaston, Mugginton, Sandiacre * (late), West Hallam. Perpendicular. — Bonsall, Brailsford, Chelmorton*, Horsley*, Longstone, Monyash, Radbourne, Taddington. Devonshire is celebrated for the number and variety of its Norman fonts. There are ninety-five extant, fifteen of which are circular, and the remainder cubical or squared. Paley engraves four examples, namely, Alphington, Hartland, Plympton, and Stoke Canon. Out of twenty-five old churches of North Devon, in that in- teresting triangle of the county of which Bideford, Hartland, and Torrington form the angles, although late 1 5th-cent. work strongly predominates in the fabrics, seven of the fonts are Norman of varied characteristics. The font at Hartland is a good example : the upper part, which is ornamented with interesting arcade work, is square ; the base has a cable moulding, and is also channelled with a chevron pattern. The font at Weir Gifford is also square, and resembles the cushioned capital of a pier. The font of the little 196 ENGLISH CHURCH FURNITURE church of West Putford has a rude-shaped bowl almost oval, but the cable moulding points to a Norman date ; it was probably, in its origin, of village workmanship. The fonts of Buckworthy and Lancross have also cable mouldings. The font of Abbotsham church is chalice-shaped, but there is the cable moulding round the top of the bowl, as well as round the top and bottom of the base shaft ; it is of late Norman date. The more beautiful examples of the period are in South Devon. The instances of 13th and I4th-cent. fonts in this county are singularly few. In the 15th cent, as stone-dressing appliances became more skilled, granite was largely used in the church fabrics of North Devon as well as in Cornwall. Here and there this durable stone was brought into use for fonts. In the district first named granite is used for I5th-cent. fonts at Littleham, Sutcombe, Langtree, and Milton Damerel. The large octagon font of Langtree is well moulded and carved considering the hardness of the material ; it is divided into panels, on one of which is the Agnus Dei^ on another a Latin cross, and simple conventional patterns on the remainder. At Plympton St. Mary, in the south of the county, the octagonal granite font is of effective though simple design and well moulded. The eight panels bear shields in quatrefoils, and the slender octagonal shaft is panelled with trefoil heads. The Gentleman's Magazine for 1835 has an extraordinary account of a quasi font that used to be in the church of St. Edmund- on-the-Bridge, Exeter, which had at that date been recently taken down. " The modern font, which resembled an apothecary's mortar, was drawn up, when not used, to the brestsummer of the west gallery." Norman, — Abbotsham, Alphington, Ashington, Ashprington, Bare Ferrers, Berry Narbor, Bideford, Bishopsteignton, Blackawton, South Brent, Buckfastleigh, Clawton, Chariton, Chudlaigh, Clovally, Colyton Rawleigb, Crediton Bishop, Daan Prior, Drewsteignton, Dunkaswall, Ermington, Exatar St. Mary Steps, Farringdon, Hartland, Holbaton, Honiton Clyst, Huxam, Laddiswall, Liistlaigh, Maristow*, South Molton, South Pool, East Rutford, Rattary, Sampford Pevarel, Stoke Canon, Tawstock, Tatcote, Ugborough, Wear GifFord, Woolborough, Woolfardisworthy. Early English. — Coffinswell. Decorated, — Lamerton, Meavy, Sheepstor_, Woodland. i GREAT KIMBLE, BUCKS BISHOPSTEINGTON, S. DEVON ALPHINGTON, S. DEVON YOULGREAVE, DERBYSHIRE FONTS 197 Perpendicular. — Bigbury, Buckland Monachorum, Clyst St. George, Dod- discombsleigh, Dunsford, North Moulton, Ottery St. Mary, Petrock- stow, Plympton St. Mary, East Teignmouth, Totnes, Yealmpton. Dorsetshire, like other counties of the west, has a considerable number of Norman fonts ; there are few good ones of the Early English period, and a large number of the 15th cent. Paley illustrates the handsomely ornamented late Norman circular font of West Chel- borough. Pimperne is a good example of the cup-shaped font. Toller Fratrum has the bowl covered with sculptured figures. Loders has a square Norman bowl of Purbeck marble. Wareham has its iith-cent. leaden font mounted on an octagonal base of the same local marble. Purbeck marble, as might be sup- posed, is the material of various of the fonts, as at Gussage All Saints, Down- ton, and Mappowder, and also the fine late Norman example at Whitchurch Canonicorum, the Early English ex- ample of Cranborne, and in the later instance at Sherborne. The font of Puddletown is highly singular and beautifully wrought ; it is beaker- shaped, and carved through- out with vine-leaved trellis work. The rich late Perpendicular font of Bradford Abbas is well illustrated by Paley. It is supported by a central panelled shaft and by a square buttress