English Villages Part 14

The register of Sparsholt, Berks, records an instance of the body of a dead man being arrested for debt. The entry is:--

"The corpse of John Matthews, of Fawler, was stopt on the churchway for debt, August 27, 1689. And having laine there fower days, was by Justices warrant buryied in the place to prevent annoyances--but about sixe weekes after it was by an order of Sessions taken up and buried in the churchyard by the wife of the deceased."

A dog-whipper was an ancient parish official, whose duty was to drive out all dogs from the church. The Wakefield accounts contain the items:--

"1616. Paid to Gorby Stork for whippinge s. d.

doggs 2 6"

"1703. For hatts shoes and hoses for s.e.xton and dog-whipper 18 6"

Another official was the person appointed to arouse members of the congregation from their slumbers during divine service. The parish accounts of Castleton record:--

s. d.

"1702. Paid to sluggard waker 10 0"

Sometimes the cost of a journey to London was defrayed by the parish in order to enable a sufferer to be touched for the king's evil. The Ecclesfield accounts contain the following entry relating to this custom:--

"1641. Given to John Parkin wife towards her travell to London to get cure of his Majestie for the disease called the Evill, which her s. d.

Sonen Thorn is visited withall 6 8"

The clergymen were required to keep a register of all who were so touched, in order that they might not again go to the king and receive the bounty which accompanied the touch. Hence we read in the register of Hambleden, Bucks:--

"1685. May 17, Mary Wallington had a certificate to goe before the King for a disease called the King's Evil."

The treating of bishops and clergy is often noticed in the accounts.

Sometimes a sugar-loaf was presented, as at St. James', Bristol:--

"1629. Paid for a sugar loaf for the Lord Bishop 15's 10'd"

Sometimes items relate to their refreshment:--

"1593. Pd for a galland of beer given to the Beishopp of Hereford iiii'd"

"1617. Pd for a quart of wine and sugar bestowed upon two preachers x'd"

The status of students at the Universities was not so high in former days as at present, and poor scholars used to beg their way to Oxford and Cambridge, and receive the a.s.sistance of the charitable. Hence we read in the Leverton accounts:--

"1562. Gave to a pore scholar at Oxford. 2s. 0d."

With this record of "a pore scholar" we must leave our study of the contents of the parish chest, which afford such valuable and accurate information about village and town life of ancient times.

[6] 812 registers begin in 1538, 40 of which contain entries prior to that date. 1,822 registers date from 1538 to 1558, and 2,448 from 1558 to 1603.

[7] In the Whitchurch books we find: "1671. Paide for a coate and wastcoate for good wife Clarke 13s., also for linen and shoes; to the Chiurgeons for looking at Ezechiell Huller's legg 3." And such-like entries.

CHAPTER XVIII

STAINED GLa.s.s, TILES, AND MURAL PAINTINGS

Destruction of old windows--Wilfrid's gla.s.s-window makers--Gla.s.s, stained and painted--Changes in style--Work of foreign artists--Inlaid tiles--Ironwork on doors and screens--Norman hinges--Mediaeval plumbing work--Mural decoration, frescoes, and wall-painting--Cause of their destruction--St. Christopher--Consecration crosses--Norman art--Favourite subjects--Yew trees in churchyards--Lich-gates--The churchyard--Curious epitaphs.

No branch of archaeology is more interesting than the study of our stained-gla.s.s windows, which ill.u.s.trate so clearly the faith, history, and customs of our ancestors. We have again to thank the fanatics of the Reformation and Cromwellian periods for the shameful destruction of so many beautiful windows. How great has been the loss to art and history caused by their reckless demolition! And in addition to this miserable violence our windows have suffered greatly from the ignorant indifference of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which allowed priceless examples of old gla.s.s to be removed and replaced by the hideous specimens of the modern gla.s.s-painters.

In Saxon times this art found a home in England, the _artifices lapidearum et vitrearum fenestrarum_ having been invited to this country by Wilfrid, Bishop of York, in 709. The earliest specimen of ancient gla.s.s now in existence is in the choir-aisles of Canterbury Cathedral, where it was probably fixed when the cathedral was rebuilt after the fire in 1174.

Coloured gla.s.s is of two kinds: (1) _Stained gla.s.s_, made by mixing metallic oxides with the gla.s.s when in a state of fusion, the colours thus going through the whole ma.s.s; (2) _Painted gla.s.s_, in which colouring is laid upon the white or tinted gla.s.s, and fixed by the action of fire. As the style of architecture changed, so the art of the gla.s.s-painter changed with it. In the Early English period the colours were very rich, and the designs consisted of medallions containing subjects taken from Holy Scripture, or the lives of the saints, upon grounds of ruby and blue. Mosaic patterns form the groundwork of the medallions, and a border of scrolls and foliage incloses the whole design. The outlines of the figures are formed by the lead. In the Decorated period the medallions disappear, and in their place we find single figures of large size under canopies. Instead of the mosaic backgrounds diaper-work in whole colours is used. Lights and shades are introduced in the dresses and canopies, and foliage is painted on the panes. The artists of this period first introduced heraldic devices into the windows. A border of white gla.s.s intervenes between the window and the medallion.

When the Perpendicular style was in vogue the art of the gla.s.s-painter degenerated, as did that of the architect. Stained gla.s.s was little used, and the artists painted with enamel colours their designs upon the gla.s.s. The figures were larger than before, and the canopies of great size and with much architectural detail, landscapes and buildings appearing in the background. During this period inscriptions began to be used. In the sixteenth century the progress of the art was in the same direction. Large figures, and groups of figures, fill the whole window, and the existence of mullions is disregarded in the execution of the design. Gla.s.s-painting flourished until the Civil War period, and then died out.

English churches benefited much by the work of foreign artists. The great Florentine Francesco di Lievi da Gamba.s.si visited this country.

There is a letter dated 1434, written "to the master gla.s.s-painter Gamba.s.si, then in Scotland, and who made works in gla.s.s of various kinds, and was held to be the best gla.s.s-painter in the world." How much must we regret the destruction of the windows made by this excellent artist in Holyrood chapel and elsewhere by fanatical mobs! The Fairford windows are perhaps the finest and most interesting in England. The story runs that they were made in Germany for a church in Rome, and that the vessel conveying them was captured by an English s.h.i.+p; and as the n.o.ble church at Fairford was then being built, the gla.s.s was sent there and given to it. s.h.i.+plake Church, Oxfords.h.i.+re, has some of the beautiful gla.s.s which once adorned the ruined church of St. Bertin at St. Omer, plundered during the French Revolution.

Some good work was accomplished in the seventeenth century by English artists, who practised enamel painting, notably by Jervais, who in 1717 executed from designs by Sir Joshua Reynolds the beautiful west window of New College Chapel, Oxford.

The floors of our churches were enriched with inlaid tiles. Various patterns and designs were impressed upon them when the clay was moist, a metallic glaze covered the surface, and then the tiles were placed in the furnace. Many designs are found on ancient tiles, such as heraldic devices, monograms, sacred symbols with texts, architectural designs, figures, and patterns. The age of the tiles may be determined by comparing the designs imprinted upon them with the architectural decorations belonging to particular periods. In the sixteenth century many Flemish tiles were brought to England, and superseded those of English manufacture.

In the Middle Ages no branch of art was neglected. Even the smith, who made the ironwork for the doors, locks, and screens, was an artist, and took pains to adapt his art to the style of architecture prevailing in his time. Norman doors are remarkable for their beautifully ornamented hinges. They have curling scrollwork, and a large branch in the form of the letter C issuing from the straight bar near the head. Early English doors have much elaborate scrollwork, with foliage and animals' heads.

During the Decorated period the hinges are simpler, on account of the carved panelling on the doors, and they continue to become plainer in the subsequent period. The knockers on the doors often a.s.sume very grotesque forms, as at Durham Cathedral. The mediaeval plumber was also an artist, and introduced s.h.i.+elds of arms, fleur-de-lis, and other devices, for the enrichment of spires, and pipes for carrying off water from the roof.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ANNUNCIATION, ENBORNE CHURCH]

No part of the ancient decoration of our churches has suffered more than the paintings and frescoes which formerly adorned their walls. In the whole of the country there are very few of the ancient edifices which retain any traces of the numerous quaint designs and figures painted on the inner surfaces of their walls during the Middle Ages. Our ancestors used to make free use of colour for the purpose of architectural decoration, and employed several means in order to produce the effect.

They sometimes used fresco, by means of which they produced pictures upon the walls covered with plaster while the plaster was wet. Sometimes they employed wall-painting, _i.e._ they covered the walls when the plaster was dry with some pictorial representation. The distinction between fresco and wall-painting is frequently forgotten. Most of the early specimens of this art are monochromes, but subsequently the painters used polychrome, which signifies surface colouring in which various colours are employed. The vaulted ceilings, the timber roof, the screens and canopies, the monuments with their effigies, as well as the surface of the walls, were often coloured with diaper-work. Colour and gilding were marked features in all mediaeval buildings, and even richly carved fonts and sculptural monuments were embellished with this method of decoration. The appearance of our churches in those times must have been very different from what it is now. Then a blaze of colour met the eye on entering the sacred building, the events of sacred history were brought to mind by the representations upon the walls, and many an unlearned rustic acquired some knowledge of biblical history from the contemplation of the rude figures with which his village church was adorned.

"Even the very walls of this dread place, And the tall windows, with their breathing lights, Speak to the adoring heart."

The practice of painting the walls of our churches dates as far back as Saxon times; but very few fragments of pre-Norman art remain. Of Norman work we have numerous examples, and sometimes it is found that the early specimens of the art have been painted over in later Gothic times, and ruder and larger figures have eclipsed the more careful work of previous ages. An example of this was discovered in the church of St. Lawrence, Reading, where no less than five distinct series of paintings were discovered, painted one over another.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CRUCIFIXION, HATFORD, BERKS]

Several circ.u.mstances have combined to obliterate these specimens of the art of former days. It was not the intention of the Reformers themselves to destroy them. They distinguished carefully between "an embossed and gilt image, and a process of a story painted with the gestures and action of many persons; and commonly the sum of the story written withal hath another use in it than one dumb idol or image standing by itself."

It was left to the Puritans, impelled by fanaticism and ignorance, to make "a slanderous desolation of the places of prayer," and it is to them we owe much of the destruction of the old mural paintings. At the end of the eighteenth century there was a prejudice against these works of art; for in 1773 we find the Bishop of London refusing to allow Reynolds, West, and Barry to clothe the naked walls of St. Paul's Cathedral with pictures painted by themselves. Coated over by layers of plaster, or whitewashed until all traces were obliterated, these relics of ancient art have remained for generations, and it is only when an old church is being restored, and the coats of plaster and whitewash removed, that their presence is revealed; and then too often the colours fade away on exposure to the air.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ST. PAUL, KINGSTON LISLE]

One of the favourite subjects of mural decoration was a figure of St.

Christopher with the Infant Saviour on his shoulder.[8] He usually has a staff, and strange-looking fish swim about his feet as he crosses the river; on one side there is a hermitage, with the figure of a hermit holding a lantern to guide the saint, and on the other a windmill. This figure usually was painted on the wall opposite the princ.i.p.al entrance, as it was deemed lucky to see St. Christopher on first entering a church. Moreover the sight of the saint was a preservative against violent death during the day, and also a preventive against drowsiness during the service, as the following verses show:--

"Christophori sancti speciem quicunque tuetur Illo namque die nullo languore tenetur."

Churchwardens' accounts record the painting of these figures--

"1503-4. It. payd to mylys paynter for payntyng of Seynt X'fer viii's iiii'd"