Part 4

A distinctive feature is the existence of the "Close," exhibiting interesting remains of English architecture. To more thoroughly ensure the privacy of the cathedral, its precincts were enclosed, very much like a college at a university, either within a solid wall enclosure or generally surrounded by dwellings for the ecclesiastics. Though the cathedral might be in the densest quarter of the town, yet, on closing its gates, it secured complete severance from the city. The cathedral close at Salisbury is quite the best specimen extant in England.

_En passant_ we would mention among the many eminent men that Peterborough is justly proud of, Benedict, who was abbot in 1180, and founded an hospital, which he dedicated to St. Thomas a Becket, whose biographer and ardent admirer he was; and an eminent English historian in the fourteenth century, John, abbot of the monastery of Peterborough; Archdeacon Paley, a celebrated divine and moralist, who died in 1805; and Sir John Hill, a popular writer in the eighteenth century.

In conclusion, we cannot help drawing attention to the great general, statesman, and contemporary of the Duke of Marlborough, who was called after this city, and known in the reigns of Anne and George I. The title of Earl of Peterborough was conferred by Charles I. on the family of Mordaunt, and worthily borne by the celebrated soldier-statesman.

St. Albans

St. Albanus.

("Doomsday Book.")

Under the title of "Oppidum," the stronghold of Cassivelaunus, St. Albans is frequently mentioned by Caesar and Tacitus.

At the time of Caesar's first visit to England, which was in 46 B.C., the Britons led a wandering life, and it was only in war time that they gathered together and took refuge in towns. Tacitus and Caesar describe the Britons as people who had no cities, towns, or buildings of any durable materials. The sites of their towns were chosen with a view to turning to good account all the assistance that Nature could lend, such as woods, ditches, and bogs.

Though Caesar names no particular town, yet he describes his attack and occupation of the "Oppidum" over which Cassivelaunus was the chief. And from what is known of the progress and distance of Caesar from the Thames, there seems no doubt that "Verulamium," as it was then and afterwards called, is identical with that of the stronghold of the Britons. It was situated on the low ground on the banks of the river Ver. Caesar's occupation was brief. Until the conquest of Britain by Claudius in 43 A.D. it remained an important city in the hands of the Britons. Finally, in 420 A.D., the Romans quitted Britain. During their stay they had greatly opened up the country, constructing the famous high roads, one of which is the great North Road, called Watling Street, which stretches from London to York.

In the fifth century Verulamium, as we shall still continue to call St. Albans for a while, was occupied by the Saxons. They changed the site of the Roman city from the low ground, on which now stands the Church of St. Michael, to the higher ground. At the same time they renamed it Watling-ceaster, after Watling Street, which passed through it.

From the ruins of the ancient city of Verulamium arose in the tenth century the celebrated monastery in honour of St. Alban. To account for the erection of this building it is necessary to give a brief sketch of its patron saint.

During the Diocletian persecution of the Christians, in the year 304 A. D., a distinguished citizen, Alban of Verulamium, of Roman origin, but converted to Christianity, suffered martyrdom for giving shelter to Amphibalus, a Christian. For this crime he was executed on the site of the present abbey, and in 772 was canonised.

* * * * *

Nearly five hundred years after, in 793, Offa, the King of Mercia, was very much exercised in mind as to the best means of expiating his murder of AEthelbert.

Greatly to his relief, he was bidden in a vision to seek the remains of St. Alban, and over them, when found, to erect a monastery. In accordance with these instructions he, with Higbert, Archbishop of Lichfield, the Bishops of Leicester and Lindsey, and a huge assembly of clergy and laity, visited the hill, where the "Proto-martyr of England," as St. Alban came to be known, had suffered. There the holy remains were discovered. Over them Offa founded the abbey, with a monastery for one hundred monks of the Order of St. Benedict.

* * * * *

The present abbey really dates from the eleventh century. At the close of the tenth century the ruins of the old Roman city of Verulamium were broken up to serve as materials for the new church buildings. But owing to the unsettled character of the times the erection was delayed, till William the Conqueror was firmly possessed of the throne, when Paul of Caen, a relative of Archbishop Lanfranc, was appointed abbot in 1077. He built the magnificent Norman structure, based upon the plans of St. Stephen's, Caen--the same church which served as a model for Lanfranc, when he built Canterbury.

Though finished for some years past, it was only consecrated in 1115.

As was invariably the custom, the church was built in the form of a cross. In this connection it is interesting to note the evolution of the cross.

Prior to the Christian era the cross was looked upon with disfavour.

To be crucified was to undergo a most ignominious form of punishment, and it was only served out to malefactors of the worst description. Nothing short of this would have been a sufficient check in those times to the growth of vice. But in the early days of Christianity the cross came to be regarded as the holiest symbol of "The Sacrifice" made for the good of mankind.

When converts met they formed on the ground the sign of the cross, in order to distinguish friends from foes. The mere fact of a severe punishment meted out consequent on discovery of this secret passport served only to increase the reverence held for the symbol.

As soon as time and opportunity allowed places of worship were erected, and the natural form adopted would be that of the cross, for which they had suffered so much persecution, and which typified the foundation of their faith and hopes of salvation.

As they assembled in church they would be sensible of the prevailing influence of the emblem. In every direction, look where they would, they would always see the holy sign. The roof would reveal to the gaze the same form as that on the ground.

Even the walls, as they soared upwards, out-lined, tier upon tier, the Christian sign, capped at the last by a mighty cross, which cast its protecting shadows around and over the worshippers.

The altar came to be placed at the head of the cross. The transept, crossing it at right angles, formed the arms, and the nave the upright.

The altar was always situated at the east end, again illustrating a link with the pagan times, when worshippers turned towards the sun.

As time progressed chapels were erected along the sides, causing the walls to be pierced and arched. These chapels were in honour, firstly, of "The Blessed Virgin," and then of the leaders of "The Faith," who had been canonised as saints on account of martyrdom. But the main building was always dedicated to the "God Head."

By a special grant in 1154, given by Pope Adrian IV., who was born near St. Albans, and who was the only Englishman ever appointed to the Papal See, the abbots of St. Albans were allowed the privilege of wearing a mitre. Added to this dignity he was given precedence over all in England, whether they were king, archbishop, bishop, or legate. He also exercised supreme episcopal jurisdiction over all clergy and laity in all lands pertaining to the monastery.

The first abbot was Willgod, nominated by King Offa.

The last one was Richard Boreman, otherwise Stevenache.

In all there were forty-one from the foundation to the suppression, which took place in 1534. In that year the monastery was seized by Henry VIII., who allowed pensions to the monks, and an annuity to the abbot.

About 1480 the abbey was amongst the first in England to set up a printing press. On this the first English translation of the Bible was printed.

* * * * *

In spite of every loving care exercised, the relics of St. Alban enjoyed little rest. In Wulruth's reign as fourth abbot, the abbey suffered at the hands of the Danes. They carried away with them the bones of "the Proto-martyr" to Denmark, and there placed them in a convent at Owenses. They were found and brought back to the abbey.

Again, seventy years later, the Danes ravaged the country. But this time AElfric II., eleventh abbot, resorted to artifice. He hid the bones in the walls of the church, and sent bogus relics to the monastery at Ely, giving the monks special charges to guard them well. On the retirement of the Danes from the country, AElfric sent post haste to reclaim these bones. Ely at first demurred, but, giving way in the end, sent back some substituted bones. This disquieted the saint.

He appeared to Gilbert, a Benedictine monk, and to him disclosed the fraud, enjoining him to bring to light the true bones from their hiding-place. This was solemnly done. But Ely unexpectedly disclosed the artifice they had practised, and claimed that they were in possession of the true relics.

As neither party would yield, "the relics of St. Alban" for a hundred years received reverential and impartial homage both at St. Albans and at Ely. Eventually Ely disclaimed their right, on the appeal of Robert de Gorham, the eighteenth abbot, to the Pope.

In the history of the "Wars of the Roses," the city of St. Albans played a prominent part.

In 1455 Henry VI. set up his royal standard on the north side of the town, whilst the Yorkists, under the Duke of York and the Earl of Warwick, the "Kingmaker," encamped in the fields east of the town.

On May 3 of the same year in Holywell Street and its adjacent roads fought the two armies to decide the succession to the English throne. The Yorkists gained the victory. The king was taken a wounded prisoner.

On February 17, 1461, St. Albans was for the second time the scene of a terrible battle. The Lancastrians, with Queen Margaret at their head, defeated the Yorkists under the Earl of Warwick, and restored Henry VI. to the throne.

The principal portions now in existence of the original Norman church by Paul of Caen are the tower, the eastern bays of the nave, and the transepts. Though it exhibits specimens of architecture of different periods, and has undergone much restoration, the main architectural outlines, as conceived by Paul, have been adhered to all the time.

Within recent years Sir Gilbert Scott, succeeded by Sir Edmund Beckett, made extensive renovations. The only reminder of the once vast monastic buildings is the great gateway, within a few yards of the west entrance to the abbey.

Wells

Welle.

("Doomsday Book.")

"Wells, a city, having separate jurisdiction, locally in the hundred of Wells-Forum, County of Somerset." Thus runs a description of this place, and is a fair sample of most cities. We think a little explanation anent "the hundred" may possibly make that term more clear of understanding, and may not be amiss. The description, short as it is, has quite a condensed history of its own, but only conveys a hazy idea of the status of the city.

In the days of heathenism, it must be remembered that England was partitioned into several kingdoms, the size of which was regulated by the might of their respective kings. Each tribe, or kingdom, was ruled by a tribal chief, or folk-king. He was chosen by the tribe, and the king-ship became in time practically hereditary. To maintain his power he had to respect and keep the customs of his people. Without their consent he could pass no law; he could touch no freeman's life or heritage without consent of law, which gave the freeman the right of defending his cause before his fellow-freemen; he presided, at regular annual intervals, at the folk-moot, or tribal assembly, and at the great feasts and sacrifices. Counsellors and wise men assisted the king with advice. His marriages were the result of favourable and pacific negotiations with other tribes. He was called upon to travel throughout his kingdom and see that justice was properly administered and evil and oppression suppressed. He was almost regarded as a demi-god, and his crimes were supposed to be punished by the gods, who denied good seasons and brought about other calamities. The king was allowed a little army, or comitatus as it was called, of paid retainers, to maintain adequate discipline, and to form his bodyguard. These kings, chosen by the people at the tribal-moot, in heathen times were throned on the holy stone and carried about on a shield, and in Christian times were consecrated. In accordance with the extension of the West Saxon kingdom, which became the kingdom of the English, the court increased. At the time of the Conquest, a treasurer, a chancellor, and other officials looking after the king's plate, clothes, and horses were added to the royal household. When in addition to these were added the bishops, abbots, and the aldermen, who had succeeded the tribal kings in the several "folks," or "shires," on their absorption into the West Saxon kingdom, the king was recognised as the head of the Witema-gemot, or Concilium Sapientium, as the "meeting of wisemen" was called. In the tenth century the king no longer went about to get the consent of each folk-moot to a certain law, but convened the heads of each shire-moot at some convenient central spot. This convening of moots, or Mycel-gemot, became the Magnum Concilium of the Normans, and in the thirteenth century developed into the High Courts and Parliament. Beneath the shire-moots came the "hundred-moots," and later on the "hall-moots." The origin of the "hundred" appears, by some authorities, to be based on the military organisation. It is supposed, in the first instance, to be a grouping of a sufficient number of free homesteads to furnish at least one hundred and twenty fully-armed freemen for war service, and to supply full-qualified jurors for the cases of the district. This hundred-moot was presided over by a lord or an hundred-elder, and discharged the duties for the district much in the same way as the shire-moot did for the county. It was a criminal and civil court with its grand jury, and enforced the attendance of persons from each manor within the hundred. When the king was absent from the shire-moot, the "ealdorman" (alderman) of the shire presided, and to watch the royal interests was nominated the "shire-reeve," or sheriff (scirgerefa), chosen from the better class of the freeholders. We are told that the laws of England were far in advance of those in France. In fact, the English had written laws at the time of the Conquest, and the Normans had none. It hardly seems credible that the conquered were, in some respects, more civilised than their conquerors.

It was only after the Conquest that the "Doomsday Book" came into existence. After the Conquest the sheriff became simply a royal officer. He was the financial representative of the Crown within his district. Now his financial duties no longer exist, and his judicial are almost _nil_. Our general knowledge of him is that he is supposed to be in at the death of a murderer, and that he is somehow or other associated with the bailiff--sheriff's officer, as he is styled.

Mr. Collins presents us with three interesting graphic descriptions. This city owes its name to the numerous springs, and more particularly to that of St. Andrew's Well, whose water, rising in the vicinity of the episcopal palace, flows through the south-western part of the city. Ina, King of the West Saxons, named it thus. He, in 704, founded a collegiate church and dedicated it to St. Andrew the Apostle.

This foundation was handsomely endowed by Cynewulf in 766, and flourished till 905. Wells was then erected into a see. This change was consequent on an edict of Edward the Elder for the revival of religion, which had been brought down to a low ebb by the frequent and terrible incursions of the Danes. To combat this state of things, Pligrund, Archbishop of Canterbury, consecrated several new bishops, of whom Aldhelm, formerly Abbot of Glastonbury, became first bishop of Wells.

Edward the Confessor made his chaplain, Giso, the thirteenth bishop to the See, and at the same time enriched it by the confiscated property of Godwin, Earl of Kent, and Harold, Earl of Wessex, his son, whom he had driven into exile. Harold, in spite of his exile, made an incursion into Somersetshire, levied mail on his former tenantry, and eased the church of its treasures.

In the meantime Giso was being consecrated at Rome. On his return he was fortunate enough to gain some compensation from the queen, who was sister to Harold. But, unfortunately for Giso, Harold was again received into favour. He promptly procured the banishment of Giso, and on his succession later to the throne straightway resumed all his estates, which Edward the Confessor had granted to the Church, and thus impoverished the See.

Bishop Giso's opportunity came with the Conquest, when he was reinstated. William, in his second year of reign, restored to the Bishopric, with some small deduction, all Harold's estates. Giso augmented the number of canons, and built a cloister, hall, and dormitory, and enlarged and beautified the choir of the Cathedral. John de Villula, his successor, swept away these buildings, and on their site built a palace.

Villula's name in ecclesiastical history is closely associated with a memorable event which caused considerable commotion and rivalry between the inhabitants of Wells and Bath. He removed the See of the diocese to Bath, and assumed the title of Bishop of Bath. Feeling ran high, and the Archbishop of Canterbury was appealed to. His ingenuity proposed that the prelates should be styled "Bishop of Bath and Wells," that an equal number of delegates from both cities should elect him, and that their installation should take place in both churches. Yet, later, the determination of the diocese's headquarters became again a vexed question, under Bishop Savaricus, who was closely allied to the Emperor of Austria.

Richard I.'s liberty was granted him by the Emperor of Austria on one condition besides the ransom, that the then vacant Abbey of Glastonbury should be annexed to the See of Bath and Wells. Savaricus afterwards changed the seat of his diocese to Glastonbury, and styled himself Bishop of Glastonbury. The seat was finally settled in 1205, after his death, by the monks under his successor, Joscelyne de Wells. Glastonbury petitioned Rome, favourably, to be reinstated as an abbey, on condition of relinquishing a handsome portion of its revenue to the See.

Joscelyne assumed the bishopric title of Bath and Wells, which has remained to this day. The death of this prelate was the signal for further dispute in another direction. The monks of Bath endeavoured to exercise, in opposition to the Canon of Wells, the right of electing the successor to the See. All dispute was settled by the Pope, who managed to draw closer the union of the churches. At the Reformation the monastery of Bath was suppressed, and though the name of the See was retained, all ecclesiastical authority and the right of electing the Bishop were vested in the Dean and Chapter of Wells, which then became the sole chapter of the Diocese.

The Chapter House is a beautiful octagonal building, each side measuring fifty feet. Its finely groined roof is held up by a central clustered column of Purbeck marble. Beneath it there is a crypt displaying a very good example of plain groining.

The foundation of the present Cathedral was laid by Wiffeline, the second bishop of the diocese, and completed by Bishop Joscelyne in 1239. This cruciform structure was dedicated to St. Andrew. On the south the cloisters form three sides of a quadrangle. The prevailing style of the architecture of this church is the Early English, with the introduction of the Decorated and subsequent periods.

The west front is divided into compartments by buttresses, and is richly embellished with canopied niches, containing statues of kings, popes, cardinals, bishops, and abbots. Even the mullions of the west window and the lower stages of the western towers are similarly treated. These towers, like the central tower, are crowned with parapets elegantly pierced. The nave and transepts display the grand simplicity and elegance of the Early English style. The former is separated from the aisles by a series of clustered columns and finely pointed arches, above which are placed a triforium of lancet-shaped arches, and a range of clerestory windows with elegant tracery in the Later English style inserted.

The choir belongs to the Decorated style.

The Cathedral contains several chapels. In one there is the ancient clock from Glastonbury. It has an astronomical dial, and figures of knights in armour are set in motion by machinery. An ancient font in the south transept is of the same date as this portion of the Cathedral.

Of monuments there is the elaborate effigy of Bishop Beckington; and in the choir the grave-stone of Bishop Joscelyne is the sole relic of what was once an imposing marble monument bearing a brass effigy. In the centre of the nave King Ina was buried.

The hall, by Villula, was demolished in the reign of Edward VI. for the sake of its materials. Its remains even now clearly indicate its original splendour. In length it was one hundred and twenty feet.

On the dissolution of the monasteries Henry VIII. remodelled the then existing establishment and refounded it. This monarch's name reminds us that Cardinal Wolsey and Archbishop Laud were prelates of this see. The eminent historian, Polydore Vergil, was archdeacon in the sixteenth century, and in the year 1634 was born in this city pious Dr. George Bull, Bishop of St. David's.

The history of the See is the history of the city.

Worcester

Wirecestra.

("Doomsday Book.")

Apart from its beautiful Cathedral, this ancient city has gained notoriety from its famous manufacture of porcelain. Who is there who has not heard of "Old Worcester" china? From the experiments of china clay, china stone from Cornwall, feldspar from Sweden, fire-clay from Stourbridge and Broseley, marl, flint, and calcined bones, Dr. Wall evolved those exquisite creations of Worcester china which now claim universal admiration and obtain fabulous prices.

It has been said that for political reasons the joint efforts of Dr. Wall, a physician; William Davies, an apothecary; and Edward Cave, the founder of _The Gentleman's Magazine_, gave birth to the foundation of the Worcester Porcelain Company. This desirable event took place in 1751, six years after the invasion of the Pretender's armed forces, which penetrated as far as Derby. Whether the establishment of this industry helped George II.'s party to gain votes in the county against the numerous supporters of the Pretender, who made their presence felt in Worcester, or not, is now of little consequence. The existence of this branch of art clearly demonstrates the insecure footing of politics, and asserts the triumph of its founders.

Mr. Collins gives us another proof that "art is long" by his skilful rendering of the beautiful portion of Worcester Cathedral here shown.