Part 4

There are numerous architectural manuals, but Parker’s “Glossary of Gothic Architecture” has not been surpassed, and is very comprehensive. The best edition is the fourth, with the two additional volumes of plates.

Before classifying the different parts of the building according to the various periods, a most careful inspection should be made of both inner and outer walls, when fragments of mouldings, pertaining possibly to an earlier church than any now standing, may not unfrequently be detected.

MONUMENTS. Inscriptions on monuments now missing, or partly obliterated, may sometimes be recovered from the Church Notes of Heraldic Visitations, or other MS. note books of ecclesiologists of past generations, in which some counties are peculiarly fortunate. For a list of MSS. of this description, that may be found in our public libraries, arranged under counties, see Sims’ “Manual.” It may also be useful to refer to two printed works--Le Neve’s “_Monumenta Anglicana_,” 5 vols. 8vo. (1717-1719), and Weever’s “Ancient Funerall Monuments,” the latest edition of which, with additions, is a 4to. vol. of 1767. The former gives inscriptions on monuments of eminent persons who deceased between 1600 and 1718, the latter treats generally of all monuments in the dioceses of Canterbury, Rochester, London, and Norwich. Bloxam, on “Monumental Architecture” (1834), is a useful handbook on the general subject of monuments.

Cutts’ “Manual of Sepulchral Slabs and Crosses” is the only book dealing with the interesting subject of early INCISED SLABS. It is well done, but much more has come to light on the subject since it was written (1849), and a new manual is much wanted. In some counties, where stone abounds, remains of this description are found in most churches. If any part of the church is being rebuilt, the debris should be most carefully looked over; and a minute inspection of the existing masonry will often detect more or less perfect specimens of incised crosses that have been utilised in the masonry by the church restorers of past generations. The lintels of the windows (especially of the clerestory and of the tower), the inner side of the parapets or battlements, the stone seats of the porch, and of course the whole of the flooring, should be critically scanned for these relics. See also Boutell’s “Christian Monuments.”

Haines’ “Manual of Monumental BRASSES” (2 vols. 8vo., 1861) is the best book on that class of memorials. The second volume consists of a fairly exhaustive list of brasses throughout the kingdom.

There is no good handbook dealing exclusively with STONE EFFIGIES, a great desideratum; the big illustrated folios of Gough’s “Sepulchral Monuments,” and Stothard’s “Monumental Effigies,” may be consulted with advantage. For the details of ARMOUR, Hewitt’s “Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe” (3 vols) is the most exhaustive work; for the details of COSTUME there are several expensive works, but the best handbook is Fairholt’s “Costume in England,” to which is appended an illustrated glossary of terms.

In connection with stained or painted GLASS, Winston’s “Hints on Glass Painting” (2nd edition, 1867) should be read, wherein the different styles of successive periods are critically distinguished and illustrated.

For the important item of HERALDRY, both in glass and on monuments, the best of the numerous manuals (and there are several very trashy) is Cussan’s “Handbook of Heraldry.” Burke’s “General Armoury,” of which a new and extended edition was published in 1878, is a dictionary of arms classified under families. Papworth’s “Dictionary of British Armorials” is arranged on the opposite principle, viz., the blazonry or description of the arms is given first, and the name of the family or families to which it pertains follows. It is an expensive work, but indispensable in the identification of arms. It will also be found to be far more accurate than Burke, and gives references to the various rolls and other MSS. from which the arms are cited.

FONTS are almost a speciality in themselves. Simpson’s “Series of Ancient Baptismal Fonts,” 1825, has a large number of beautifully finished plates of the more remarkable examples. Paley’s “Baptismal Font,” 1844, has illustrations and critical descriptions of a great number, arranged alphabetically. See also the “Archæologia,” vols. x. and xi.

BELLS have now a literature of their own. Ellacombe’s “Bells of the Church,” and Fowler’s “Bells and Bell-ringing” are admirable works. The inscriptions, etc., on the church bells of the majority of English counties have already been published, and most of the remainder are now in progress. North’s “Bells of Leicestershire,” and “Bells of Northamptonshire,” are the best books of their class, but the “Bells of Derbyshire,” now in course of publication in the “Reliquary,” and chiefly contributed by St. John Hope, are being yet more thoroughly treated, both in description and illustration.

Church PLATE should always be inspected, and the date, character, inscription, or arms on each piece carefully recorded. Chaffers’ “Hall Marks on Plate” gives the fullest description of the different marks, and how the precise date can be thereby ascertained. The fifth edition, published in 1875, is a considerable improvement on its predecessors.

INVENTORIES OF CHURCH GOODS often need explanation, or remains of various ancient church furniture may make some description necessary. There is no one book that can be thoroughly recommended on this subject; but, perhaps, the most satisfactory in some respects is Walcott’s “Sacred Archæology,” a popular dictionary of ecclesiastical art and institutions. Jules Corblet’s “Manuel Elémentaire d’Archéologie Nationale” may be consulted with advantage; it is a better done work than anything of the size and scope in English, and is well illustrated. For the various details of Church worship and ceremonies, reference should be made to Rock’s “Church of our Fathers,” and to Chambers’ valuable work, “Divine Worship in England in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, contrasted with and adapted to that in the Nineteenth.”

Before beginning the description of the Church, it will be well, in the first place, in order to ensure clearness and accuracy, that some general PLAN OF PROCEDURE should be adopted. We give the following skeleton of a suggested outline, that has been proved to be useful and orderly, but it can, of course, be altered or expanded or re-arranged in any direction.

1. Enumeration of component parts of structure, remarks as to its general or special characteristics.

2 Ground plan, _i.e._, dimensions of area of chancel, nave, etc., different levels, and number of chancel and altar steps.

3. Description of parts of the permanent structure that are (_a_) Saxon, (_b_) Norman, (_c_) Early English, (_d_) Transition, (_e_) Decorated, (_f_) Perpendicular, (_g_) Debased, (_h_) Churchwarden, and (_i_) Restored. Some definite order should be observed under each head, otherwise it is likely that some details may escape, _e.g._ doorways, windows, piers, arches, etc., of chancel, nave, aisles, porches, transepts, tower, and chapels.

4. External details--parapets, gurgoyles, niches, stoup, arms, inscriptions, “low side windows.”

5. Internal details--[Stone] altar or altar stone, piscina, almery, hagioscope, Easter or sepulchral recess, niches, brackets, roof-corbels, and sedilia of (_a_) chancel, (_b_) south aisle, (_c_) north aisle, and (_d_) chapels or transepts; also groined roofs, doorway or steps to roodloft, and stone screens--[Wood] altar table, altar rails, reading desk, lectern, pulpit, pews, benches, poppy-heads, panelling, roofs, doors, galleries, rood or chancel screen, other screens or parcloses, parish or vestment chests, alms boxes--[Iron or other metal]--any old details.

6. Font--(_a_) position, (_b_) description, (_c_) measurements, (_d_) cover.

7. Monuments--beginning with early incised stones, and carefully following them down in chronological order, an order which should not be broken except for the purpose of keeping a family group together. Arms should be correctly blazoned, and inscriptions faithfully copied.

8. Stained glass, according to age.

9. Encaustic tiles--pavement generally.

10. Fresco paintings, black-letter texts, patterns on roof or elsewhere, royal arms, charity bequest boards.

11. Bells--(_a_) number, (_b_) inscription and marks, (_c_) frame, (_d_) remarkable peals, or bell-ringers rhymes, (_e_) legends; also sanctus bell, or bell cote on nave gable.

12. Parish registers and other documents; church books, or library.

13. Church plate.

14. Church yard, (_a_) cross, (_b_) remarkable monuments or epitaphs, (_c_) yew tree, (_d_) lychgate, (_e_) sundial.

15. More recent fittings or ornaments, such as altar appurtenances, organ, etc.; the previous headings being supposed to be confined to older details possessing some historic value. But if the date, or probable date, is given of each particular, it might perhaps be as well to describe everything (if a complete account up to date is desired) under its proper head; thus a modern altar cross and candlesticks might be mentioned under the 5th head.

A few words on church “RESTORATION” may be here introduced; for it cannot surely be inappropriate to include a sentence or two in these pages (whose object it is to further the preservation of local records), that may possibly have some small influence in preventing the needless destruction of any part of those noble buildings round which the history of each English parish so closely clusters. From the standpoint of a local annalist nothing has been more painful in the “restorations” of the past forty years than the wanton way in which monuments, and more especially flat tombstones, of all ages, have been often treated.

It is necessary to enter a warm protest against the notion that any honour can be paid to God, or respect to the memory of those that He created in His own image, by burying inscribed gravestones beneath many inches of concrete in order to stick therein the glossy tiles of recent manufacture. The effacing or removal (wherever it can be avoided) of the memorials of the dead should in all cases be strongly resisted, no matter what be the eminence of the architect that recommends it. There are not many unrestored churches left in the country, but there are some of much value and interest for whose fate we tremble. When a “restoration” (the term is a necessity for the lack of a better) is contemplated, let it be recollected that all work--beyond the removal of galleries, and modern fittings, the opening out of flat plaster ceilings, above which good timber roofs often lie concealed, the scraping off the accumulated layers of whitewash and paint, the letting in of light through blocked-up windows, the allowing of feet to pass through doorways closed in recent days by the mason or bricklayer, and the making strong of really perishing parts--all work beyond this is in great danger of destroying the traces of the historic continuity of our Church, and of doing a damage that can never be repaired. And in preserving this historic continuity, let it not be thought that any service is being rendered to history or religion by sweeping clean out of the church all fittings of a post-Reformation date. The sturdy Elizabethan benches, the well-carved Jacobean pulpit, or the altar rails of beaten iron of last century, should all be preserved as memorials of their respective periods; in short, everything that our forefathers gave to God’s service that was costly and good, should be by us preserved, provided that it does not mar the devout ritual ordered by the Common Prayer, or in other respects interfere with the Church’s due proclaiming of her Divine mission to the nineteenth century. The reaction against over-restoration is now happily setting in, but a word of caution is also necessary lest that cry should be adopted as the cloak of a lazy indifferentism, or be used as an excuse for regarding the parish church as a local museum illustrative of byegone times, to be carefully dusted and nothing more. Where much new work, or any considerable extent of refitting, seem absolutely necessary, it is best to hasten slowly, and to do a little well rather than to aim at a speedy general effect. Thus, if one of our old grey churches requires fresh seating, how much better to fill a single aisle or one bay of the nave with sound and effectively carved oak, and only repair the remainder, rather than to accomplish the whole in sticky pine. The best material and the best art should surely be used in God’s service, and not reserved to feed our pride or minister to our comfort in private dwellings. It has often been noticed how far better the work of redeeming the interior of our churches from that state of dirt and neglect that had degraded some at least below the level of the very barns upon the glebe, has been carried out where money has come in slowly, and at intervals, rather than where some munificent patron has readily found the funds to enter upon a big contract.

Religious Houses.

If the parish includes within its boundaries the remains or the site of any abbey, priory, hospital, monastic cell, or other religious building otherwise than the parish church, the history and description of such places must of course be separately undertaken. And let not the local historian consider it is needless for him to explore into a subject that has probably been treated of with greater or less detail in the original edition of Dugdale’s “_Monasticon_,” or with more precision in the expanded English edition. The English abbeys or priories, whose history can be said to have been exhaustively written, could certainly be counted on the fingers of both hands.

Should any one desire to thoroughly search into the history of a religious house, it will be best in the first place to ascertain whether there is any chartulary or chartularies extant (to printed lists of which we have previously referred) for Dugdale and subsequent writers have often only quoted some two or three out of a hundred charters, or ignored them altogether. Secondly, the numerous references to national records, all now to be found at the P. R. O., which are given in Tanner’s “Notitia,” or in the big Dugdale, should be referred to seriatim. Thirdly, the indexes and calendars to the various Rolls, etc., at the P. R. O., which have been mentioned under the manorial history, should be looked through for those more or less frequent references that are almost certain to have been omitted by Tanner. Fourthly, the Augmentation Books, and other likely documents of the time of the Suppression of the Monasteries, should be overhauled. Fifthly, special MSS. dealing with the order to which the house pertains, should be sought after; _e.g._, if of the Premonstratensian order, a store of unpublished matter is almost certain to be found in the Peck MSS. of the B. M., and in the Visitation Book of the B., numbered Ashmole MSS. 1519. Sixthly, search should also be made through the indexes of the various Blue Book Reports of the Historical Manuscript Commission, and inquiries set on foot as to local private libraries. Seventhly, and though last, this suggestion will often be found to be of great value, questions should be asked through the pages of that invaluable medium between literary men--_Notes and Queries_.

It may also be found of use to study the precise statutes and regulations of the particular order. They will be found in full in the bulky folios of Holstein’s “_Codex Regularum Monasticarum et Canonicarum_,” 1759. Dugdale only gives an abstract of the majority of them.

General Topics.

Under this head we may classify the more general and modern subjects that should not be left out of any complete parochial history, but which it is sufficient just to indicate without further comment, only premising that the annalist should keep constantly before him that it is the history of a parish, and not of a county or country, on which he is engaged, and that the more sparing he is of general disquisitions the more likely he is to please his readers.

The value of a thorough study of the field-names, of which we spoke in the first section of this manual, will now also become apparent. Some names will tell of a change of physical features, of swamps and islands, where all is now dry and far removed from water, or of forests and underwood, where the blade of corn is now the highest vegetation; whilst others will point to the previous existence of the vast common fields, and their peculiar cultivation (concerning which Maine’s “Village Communities” should be read). Some will indicate the foolish ways in which special crops were attempted to be forced by law upon the people, for it is few parishes that have not a “Flax Piece” as a witness to the futile legislation of 24 Henry VIII.; whilst others tell of trades now extinct, or metals long since worked out. Some speak of those early days when the wolf or the bear roamed the woods and fields, the beaver dammed up the streams, or the eagle swooped down upon its prey; whilst others tell of the weapons whereby these fauna were rendered extinct, for scarcely a township can be found where some field is not termed “the Butts,” names that certainly date back as far as Edward IV., when it was enacted that every Englishman should have a bow of his own height, and that butts for the practice of archery should be erected near every village, where the inhabitants were obliged to shoot up and down on every feast day under penalty of being mulcted a halfpenny.

It will, of course, be a matter of taste whether the topics here enumerated should precede or follow the manorial and ecclesiastical history.

I. Situation--extent--hill and river--caverns and springs--scenic character--climate and temperature.

II. Geology--mineral workings--quarries.

III. Special vegetable productions, past and present.

IV. Special Fauna--mammalia--birds--fish--reptiles--insects.

V. Agriculture, past and present. Inclosures of different dates--Inclosure Acts; for the mostly sad effects of these most selfish Acts, which profited the rich at the expense of the poor, for lists of inclosures from time of Queen Anne, and for other valuable information on this topic, see “General Report on Enclosures,” drawn up by the Board of Agriculture in 1808. The Board of Agriculture, in the first quarter of this century, drew up most valuable Surveys of Agriculture for the different counties, many of which are replete with varied and interesting information. On the economic and antiquarian side of this question, read Professor Rogers’s “History of Agriculture and Prices in England.”

VI. Trades and manufactures, past and present.

VII. Fairs and markets.

VIII. Roads, canals, railways, and bridges--past and present. Care should be taken in tracing out disused roads, bridle paths, or pack-horse tracks.

IX. Folk-lore. Under this head will come customs and ceremonies relating to childbearing, churching, christening, courtship, betrothal, marriage, death, and burial--public-house signs and their meaning--customs and superstitious pertaining to wells and streams--used and disused sports and games--obsolete punishments, such as ducking-stool or stocks--omens--witchcraft--ghosts--charms--divinations--and other quaint or original customs. Several books have lately been published on this subject, but they are mostly instances of book-making, and none come up to or surpass Ellis’s edition of “Brand’s Popular Antiquities.” A most useful publication society has been recently started, termed “The Folk Lore Society,” which has already begun collecting and publishing. The Hon. Sec. is G. Lawrence Gomme, Esq., Castelnau, Barnes.

X. Dialect. On this subject see the invaluable publications of the “English Dialect Society,” now (1879) in the seventh year of its existence. The hon. secretary is J. H. Nodal, Esq., The Grange, Heaton Moor, Stockport. One of their publications, price 6s. to non-subscribers, is “A List of Books relating to some of the counties of England.” Halliwell’s “Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words” will be found very useful.

XI. Poor Law and general Rating, history and statistics.

XII. Population, inhabited houses, and other census details at different periods.

INDEX.

Advowson, 76.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 16.

Armour, 89.

Attainders, 53.

Bacon’s “Liber Regis,” 82.

Banks’ “Dormant and Extinct Baronage,” 48.

Bateman’s “Ten Years Diggings,” 15.

Bells, 91.

Bigelow’s “Placita Anglo-Normannica,” 35.

Black Book of the Exchequer, 20.

Blount’s “Ancient Tenures,” 19.

Bloxam’s “Monumental Architecture,” 87.

Bohn’s “Antiquarian Series,” 16.

Boldon Book, 18.

Book of Ely, 17.

Book of Exeter, 17.

Book of Winchester, 18.

Borough Records, 56.

Boutell’s “Christian Monuments,” 88.

Brand’s “Popular Antiquities,” 107.

Brasses, 88.

Briefs, 74.

Burke’s “Armoury,” 89.

Burke’s “Landed Gentry,” 48.

Burn’s “Parish Registers,” 58.

Calamy’s “Ejected Ministers,” 81.

Chaffers’ “Hall Marks,” 91.

Chalmers’ “Biographical Dictionary,” 57.

Chambers’ “Divine Worship,” 92.

Chantries, 69.

Charities, 66.

Charnock’s “Local Etymology,” 14.

Charter Rolls, 25.

Church Details, 93-6.

Church, Description of, 84.

Church, History of, 67.

Churchwardens’ Accounts, 62.

Close Rolls, 24.

Collins’ “Peerage and Baronetage,” 48.

Commonwealth Survey, 73.

Constables’ Accounts, 62.

Corblet’s “Manuel Elémentaire,” 92.

Costume, 89.

County Records, 55.

Court of Chancery, 33.

Cowel’s “Interpreter,” 78.

Cussan’s “Heraldry,” 89.

Cutts’ “Incised Slabs,” 87.

Dialect, 108.

Dedication of Church, 81.

Domesday Book, 16, 67.

Domestic Architecture, 44.

Dugdale’s “Baronage,” 48.

Dugdale’s “Monasticon,” 101.

Ecton’s “Thesaurus,” 82.

Edmondson’s “Baronagium Genealogicum,” 48.

Edmund’s “Names of Places,” 14.

Ellacombe’s “Bells of the Church,” 91.

Ellis’ “Introduction to Domesday Book,” 17.

English Dialect Society, 108.

Episcopal Registers, 79.

Etymology, 13.

Fairholt’s “Costume,” 89.

Feet of Fines, 40.

Ferguson’s “River Names,” 15.

Ferguson’s “Teutonic Name System,” 15.

Fergusson’s “Rude Stone Monuments,” 15.

Fergusson’s “History of Architecture,” 48.

Feudal Tenure, 18.

Field Names, 13, 104.

Fine Rolls, 26.

Folk Lore, 107.

Folk Lore Society, 108.

Fonts, 90.

Forfeitures, 53.

Fosbrooke’s “Encyclopædia of Antiquities,” 44.

Fowler’s “Bells and Bell-ringing,” 91.

Fuller’s “Worthies,” 57.

General Topics, 103-8.

Glass, 89.

Gomme’s “Index of Municipal Offices,” 66.

Gough’s “Sepulchral Monuments,” 89.

Greenwell’s “British Barrows,” 15.

Guilds and Fraternities, 72.

Haines’ “Brasses,” 88.

Halliwell’s “Archaic Dictionary,” 108.

Hamilton’s “Quarter Sessions,” 56.

Heralds’ Visitations, 49.

Heraldic Church Notes, 73.

Heraldry, 89.

Hewitt’s “Ancient Armour,” 89.

Historical MSS. Commission, 56.

History of the Church, 67.

Holstein’s “Codex,” 103.

Hundred Rolls, 27.

Incised Slabs, 87.

Inclosure Acts, 106.

Inclosure Commissioners, 14, 106.

Incumbents, Lists of, 78.

Inquisitiones ad quod damnum, 39.

Inquisitiones post mortem, 36.

Inventories of Church Goods, 71, 92.

Itinerant Justices, 31.

Justices in Eyre, 31.

Justices of the Forest, 31.

Kemble’s “Saxons in England,” 16.

Knight’s Fees, 18.

Le Neve’s “Fasti,” 80.

Le Neve’s “Monumenta Anglicana,” 88.

Leo’s “Local Nomenclature,” 14.

Local Etymology, 13.

Lubbock’s “Scientific Lectures,” 15.

Maine’s “Village Communities,” 104.

Manorial History, 16.

Maps, 14.

Marshall’s “Genealogist’s Guide,” 49.

Marshall Rolls, 20.

Mayors of Boroughs, 54.

Members of Parliament, 54.

Merewether’s “History of Boroughs,” 57.

Monuments, 86.

Muster Rolls, 54.

Nichols’ “Collectanea,” 77.

Nicolas’ “Notitia Historica,” 53.

Nonarum Inquisitiones, 21.

Nonconformist Registers, 61.

“Notes and Queries,” 103.