Part 17
The large room on the third floor has very similar windows to the others, and the fireplace also is very like that in the floor beneath; but the treasurer’s purse has invaded the spandrils, and the shields of Deincourt, Driby—one broken and defaced—Cromwell, and Bernak being separated by small treasurer’s purses, are enclosed in eleven dainty panels, with different tracery. On this floor in the eastern wall are two rooms even more richly vaulted than the gallery below, the spandrils being filled in with quatrefoils of moulded brickwork, enriched with the shields of Tattershall, Cromwell, Deincourt, and D’Albini (or Beler).
The floors of these great rooms were constructed of timber, and plastered; each floor resting on four great massive girders of oak, the upper one having a lead roof. Till a few years ago there were still four beams remaining _in situ_, but after the castle was struck by lightning, and one beam was thrown down, the others were taken down to avoid the chances of any accident. The lightning seems to have struck the north-east tower (which alone had kept its conical roof), and jumped across to the western wall, where it tore out the external footings of one window on each floor, till it reached the ground.
A very noticeable feature of Tattershall Castle is the covered gallery, well supplied with loopholes, which runs from turret to turret, partly projecting over the machicolations of the walls, having had above a parapeted and embattled platform. These galleries upon the machicolations are not uncommon in the châteaux of France. Visitors to the region of the Loire will remember good instances of this feature in Langeais, Azay-le-Rideau, and de L’Islette. A small staircase in the thickness of the wall of the south-eastern turret continues from the large circular staircase to the top of the turret. The turrets are battlemented, and have brick-arched machicolations. They were in Buck’s time apparently all roofed in with conical spirelets, terminating in fleurs-de-lys. All these roofs now are gone. In these turrets are fireplaces, for, no doubt, partly, the warder’s comfort, but also, possibly, for providing a prompt supply of boiling oil or lead “or something humorous” wherewith to discomfort the adversary beneath. And both in turrets and elsewhere in the buildings the necessary garde-robes may be found. The chimney stacks, on the east side particularly, must have added to the appearance of the tower, as they were originally considerably higher than they are now. Excepting the lightning stroke few modern events connected with the castle have been more interesting than the fall of a lad of nine years old, on June the 2nd, 1879, from the top wall of the keep to the floor inside, a distance of 76 feet. He came off with a dislocated hip and other bruises; but, like Joan of Arc’s 60 feet leap from Beaurevoir, “by some miracle broke no bone in (his) body.”
It might be mentioned that the fireplaces, which have been rather minutely described, are believed to have been carefully studied by Pugin when he was engaged in designing the internal decoration and fittings of the Houses of Parliament. About four miles north of Tattershall are the remains of another tower—Tower-le-Moor—of the same date, construction, and materials as Tattershall Castle. It was probably built by Lord Cromwell as a hunting-box, and was about 60 feet high. Only one angle of it exists now; considerably more is seen in Buck’s print of it in 1727.
Since this article was written, the property has been sold to Mr. Albert Ball, J.P., of Nottingham, who is, I believe, quite sensible of the great value to the nation of his new possession.
TATTERSHALL CHURCH
There are no indications existing at Tattershall of any earlier church than the present one, at least above ground—for foundations have been discovered beneath the south transept floor, which have no apparent connection with the church as it now is—except perhaps the font, which, as far as its base and stem is concerned, is of Decorated (_i.e._ fourteenth century) date. That there was an earlier church is certain for the following reasons. In 1323 Joan de Driby wished to assign, amongst other items, “the advowsons of the Church of the said Manor of Tatreshale, &c., to Gilbert de Bernak, parson of the Church of Tatishale,” &c. “The said church is worth twenty marks by the year.” Also on the choir steps is the brass of a former steward of Ralph, Lord Cromwell, _i.e._ Hugh de Gondeby, who died in 1411. And in the will of the founder, Ralph, Lord Cromwell (of whom there has been much to say in recording the history of the castle), dated 1451, it is directed that he was to be buried in the middle of the choir of Tattershall Collegiate Church, until the said church is rebuilt, and then to be removed and buried in the middle of the new church, but so that no impediment be placed in the way of going in or going out to those ministering around the divine offices in the aforesaid choir. And in Bishop Alnwick’s visitation of his cathedral in 1440[95] there is mention made of the erection of the parish church into a collegiate one by the Treasurer of England. The present building was, in part at least, erected by Ralph, third Lord Cromwell, as a collegiate church dedicated in honour of the Holy Trinity. He obtained a licence from the Crown in 1439 to endow it for the support of seven priests, one of whom was to be the warden, six secular clerks, and six choristers, and he also founded almshouses for thirteen poor persons of either sex, to be under the supervision of the warden of the college. The chaplains were to maintain divine service perpetually, to pray for the King, alive or dead, and for the souls of the founder, and of his grandmother, Dame Matilda Cromwell.
In 1519 Bishop Atwater visited Tattershall, and remarked that the choristers were only taught to sing, whereas they ought also to be instructed in grammar, and he noticed that the chaplains were in the habit of dressing like laymen, so he ordered them in future to dress as priests, according to their statutes. The seal of the college represented the Trinity in a canopied niche, beneath being a shield of arms, Cromwell and Tattershall quarterly. The college was dissolved in 1545, and was granted to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, the King’s brother-in-law, to whom the adjacent castle and manor had come in 1520. The buildings of this college, which were on the south side of the church, have disappeared. The almshouses, on the north side of the church, are probably on their original site.
The church, which is situated about eighty yards east of the castle, is a large and very spacious cruciform structure of stone (probably Ancaster, which has weathered well, and looks in many places as though it had been worked a year or two ago), consisting of nave, with aisles, choir, north and south transepts, a north porch, doorways in the west and north aisle of nave, south transept, and door in choir, and western tower. There have been cloisters on the south side of the choir to which this door gives entrance, and two porches corresponding to that existing on the north side, and the other at the south end of the south transept.
It is 180 feet long, the transepts together are 100 feet in length, the nave 60 feet wide, the chancel 26 feet, and the transepts 20 feet. Over the entrance to the north porch is a niche for a statue, below a handsome cross, and above a shield, with the coat of arms of William of Wainfleet, Bishop of Winchester, to whom some part of the architectural design of the castle has been attributed (he is supposed to have finished this church after the founder’s death), _i.e._ fusilly ermine and sable, and on a chief sable, three lilies slipped. Over the south porch was a similar shield according to Holles; in the windows above both porches was the inscription: “Orate pro anima Radulphi nuper domini de Cromwell et Tateshall, Thesaurarii Anglie et fundatoris hujus Collegii.” On the west side of the door of the north porch is a holy water stoup. Over the east window of the choir is another niche, probably for the Holy Trinity. The tower has a fine square-headed western doorway beneath a band of panels containing blank shields, a five-light window above, then a small square-headed light, and three-light belfry windows. The parapet is now plain, with crocketed angle pinnacles, which end, below the parapet, in double angular buttresses, a feature not uncommon in Perpendicular towers, but not much to be admired—especially here, as it makes the tower look rather low and squat. There is a staircase in the south-west angle of the tower, leading also on to the aisle roof. At the junction of the choir and south transept is a circular turret, in which is a staircase from the pulpitum or choir screen, up to the transept and nave roofs: it has been higher, and probably was used, as in so many other Lincolnshire churches, as a Sanctus bell-turret. The first great impression gained on entering the chancel is its exceeding lightsomeness, the window surface is very extensive, compared with the wall space, and unfortunately, except in the east window, all the coloured glass is gone. This came about in 1759, from the then Lord Fortescue giving the then Earl of Exeter the glass from the windows to put in St. Martin’s Church, Stamford,[96] on condition that the Tattershall windows should be glazed with plain glass. This condition was not observed for many years, and the interior of the church, particularly of the choir, suffered terribly from exposure and neglect. The windows of the nave and transepts, of four bays, are of good design, as is the clerestory range over nave and transepts, of three lights, but the north and south transept end windows are very fine, and of almost identical pattern with those in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, except that the latter have five bays, and Tattershall six, and at Tattershall, throughout all the windows, there is a complete absence of cusps.
The small amount of painted glass that was left has been collected together in the east window of the choir, where can be recognised the Treasurer’s badge, and the shield of Tattershall, &c. A few remains exist of the stalls, which were dated 1424, in an inscription on them, and their stone quatrefoiled base (similar to that of the stalls in Lincoln Minster) is now placed in the nave. There are fine sedilia and a piscina in the south wall of the choir, and angels on the corbels of its roof, holding shields with instruments of the Passion on them. There are two interesting wooden pulpits, and a portion of a cornice of wood along the top of the wall in the nave above the south aisle windows. In the north transept are now carefully fixed the series of fine monumental brasses—one to Ralph, Lord Treasurer Cromwell (the founder of the church), and his wife; to William Moor, second Provost of the College; to Joan, Lady Cromwell; to Matilda, Lady Willoughby de Eresby; to another Provost of the College, possibly John Gyger; to William Symson, chaplain of Edward Hevyn, who was steward to the Countess of Richmond, and who founded a chantry in this transept, where is a piscina (as there is also in the south transept). A small brass to the memory of Hugh de Gondeby, 1411, is in the centre of the choir pavement. The fine and interesting choir screen and loft (pulpitum) is dealt with at length in another chapter by the writer.
THE SEPULCHRAL BRASSES OF LINCOLNSHIRE
BY THE REV. G.E. JEANS, M.A., F.S.A.
I propose in this paper to establish the point that Lincolnshire has not hitherto been given sufficient credit among antiquaries in general for its share in the great national treasure of monumental brasses. Brasses are in themselves among the most beautiful and the most durable of monumental records. They can reproduce details of armour and costume with a delicacy which is scarcely possible in the most sumptuous stone or marble monuments. The great majority are of such convenient size that they can be rubbed on a single large sheet of paper; and, unlike altar-tombs, can be studied all at once. And furthermore, for these and other reasons, brasses have long attracted a special body of devotees among antiquaries, some of whom will rub and record a brass with loving zeal, while they will hardly look at the church which contains it, or at any of its other records in tomb or window. Thus it may be that our brasses have been better examined and figured than any other form of monumental effigy.
Nevertheless, I may claim to have shown in my list of Lincolnshire brasses, republished from _Lincolnshire Notes and Queries_, that a good deal still remained unexplored in this and, therefore, probably in other counties. Brass-lovers (no convenient single name has yet been invented) have naturally turned to the counties where brasses are to be found in almost every church, such as Norfolk, Suffolk, and Kent, or the northern and eastern ring of London; and the best of these have been splendidly illustrated in different forms by J.S. Cotman, the artist (1819), Mr. E.M. Beloe, the Rev. E. Farrer, W.D. Belcher, and others. None but casual single illustrations of the Lincolnshire brasses have been published. But I should think that none of those who saw Mr. William Scorer’s magnificent collection of rubbings of them, at the meeting of the Archæological Institute at Lincoln in July 1909, could doubt the claim of Lincolnshire to a much higher place than has been generally granted hitherto among the counties of brasses. The great long series in Boston Church, and the glorious, though fearfully maltreated, one in Tattershall Church were seen on that occasion _in situ_, and there is another great display in the county at All Saints’, Stamford, besides the many instances of one noble brass, or sometimes two, as at Spilsby and Gunby St. Peter’s. One of the most learned and accurate brass-lovers I have ever met, the late Rev. C. G. R. Birch, told me that in his opinion Lincolnshire, in the proportion of _valuable_ brasses to the whole number remaining, stood perhaps first among the counties.
* * * * *
I will now place the brasses under different categories to show how well Lincolnshire would come out in a County Championship in almost every class.
First would come the _series_, say of not less than six, in a single church. These are of course rare everywhere. Even in a county so overflowing with brasses as Norfolk, only about half-a-dozen churches would be able to qualify. Lincolnshire, as I have just said, has three. That in Tattershall Church is beyond all doubt one of the finest series in England, in spite of its heartrending maltreatment. There are seven brasses here, of which no less than four are of the first rank, namely, the great one of Lord Treasurer Cromwell, those of his two nieces—Joan, Lady Cromwell, and Matilda, Lady Willoughby d’Eresby—and the brass of a Provost of the College. Besides these there are two interesting brasses of priests and one of a civilian, 1411. Every brass in this noble set deserves study.
Next comes Boston, which, as being almost the greatest of English ports in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, having a special connection with the Low Countries, and being one of the great centres of merchant guilds, must at one time have been among the richest in England in this kind of memorial. Here there are no less than seventeen brasses, including what are little more than fragments, ten of which are effigies or the remains of figure brasses. Two of these, those of Walter Pescod and his wife and the unnamed priest of about 1400, are of the first rank, and exceedingly valuable for the figures of saints in the canopy shafts of the former and the orphreys of the latter.
All Saints’, Stamford, has eight brasses, six of which are with effigies, one very fine and all interesting.
We turn now to the _earliest_ brasses, which are of course very valuable. The first period in most books is taken to be the reigns of the first two Edwards, 1272-1327; and of this period there are only nineteen or perhaps twenty in all England, of which Lincolnshire has two, at Buslingthorpe and Croft. Everybody knows that the premier brass is Sir John d’Aubernoun’s at Stoke d’Abernon, Surrey, because that is dated 1277. But the extremely interesting half effigy of Sir Richard de Boselyngthorp, unfortunately not dated, is certainly not much later than Sir John d’Aubernoun, and, as I suggested and Mr. Macklin agrees, may be even a little earlier. Buslingthorpe is a very remote church, and there is no rectory house near, so it is to be hoped that some special care is taken about this precious monument. The one at Croft is somewhat similar, but is generally regarded as from ten to twenty years later.
Taking now the classes of people who are represented in effigies, we may regard them as mainly coming under five heads—knights or noblemen in armour, priests, ladies, merchants, or judges. How does the county come out in these?
In _Knights_ there is a fairly representative sequence. Beginning with the Buslingthorpe and Croft brasses just mentioned, we have then Sir Henry Redford at Broughton, and Sir Andrew Luttrell at Irnham (fourteenth century); Lord Willoughby at Spilsby; and others at Laughton, Gunby, Covenham St. Bartholomew, South Kelsey, and Holbeach (early fifteenth); Robert Hayton at Theddlethorpe (1424); the grand brass of Lord Cromwell at Tattershall (1455); Henry Rochforth at Stoke Rochford (1470); Sir William Skypwyth at South Ormsby (1482); and several of the sixteenth century, as at Norton Disney, Ashby Puerorum (two), Horncastle, Harrington, and Hainton (a tabard).
In _Priests_ the list is only moderate, but it is headed by the fine one at Boston in the sacrarium (_c._ 1400), and the grand late one of a Provost at Tattershall, whom I take to be John Gyger (_c._ 1510). There are two other priests at Tattershall—William Moor (1456) and William Symson (1519). Another interesting brass of a priest is that of William de Lound (_c._ 1370) at Althorpe in the Isle of Axholme. This was covered up by coats of paint daubed over the altar-tomb on which it was set, so that it was only discovered at the restoration of the church. The brass of a priest in cope (_c._ 1490), at Fiskerton, is interesting as having been lost, but fortunately re-discovered by Bishop Trollope in a shop at Lincoln. The rest are unimportant.
In _Ladies_ the county would claim high rank if it were only for the beautiful brasses of Lord Cromwell’s nieces and co-heiresses, Joan, Lady Cromwell, and Matilda, Lady Willoughby d’Eresby. Lady Cromwell’s effigy, with long flowing hair kept back by a jewelled bandeau (which looks as if the brass had been engraved before she was married), I regard as the most graceful figure on a brass in all England. Both are fine studies of dress. Their date cannot be accurately fixed, since they are certainly earlier than 1497, the year of Lady Willoughby’s death; but in my list, in _Lincolnshire Notes and Queries_, I have given reasons for believing that they were engraved between 1460 and 1480. The next finest is of another Lady Willoughby, Margery, who died in 1391; it is in the Willoughby Aisle, now kept locked, in Spilsby Church. There is another effigy of a lady with flowing hair, Elizabeth FitzWilliam, 1522, at Mablethorpe. A fine figure of a lady, _c._ 1400, was discovered at Gedney in 1890. She was probably of the Roos family, who held the manor. She wears the nebular head-dress, with hair flowing from under it. The only other lady with costume of much interest is one, probably a Skypwyth, at South Ormsby. Ladies represented with their husbands are seldom very elaborately treated as to their costume. About 1480 they had the “butterfly” head-dress, which one would suppose must have been as annoying to their husbands and brothers as the modern lady’s gigantic hat.
Turning now to _Civilians_, Lincolnshire has several brasses of great merchants, though more might be expected in what was in the Middle Ages one of the chief trading counties with the Continent. The finest of these probably was the great brass of Walter Pescod, 1398, now in the sacrarium of Boston Church, though it has lost the wife’s effigy altogether, the feet of the merchant himself, the inscription (happily recorded by Gervase Holles), and part of the superb canopy. For a study of saints in the smaller figures it is, though out of its true place, now happily placed for comparison with the contemporary priest on the other side of the altar. The next important brass of a merchant is that of William Browne, the founder of the great hospital at Stamford, in All Saints’ Church there, where there are others of the same family also. Simon Seman the vintner, standing on two wine-casks, in St. Mary’s, Barton-on-Humber; and the two Lyndewodes, father and brother of the author of _Provinciale_, at Lynwode. And if judges are to be counted with civilians, the interesting brass of William de Lodyngton, Justice of the King’s Bench of Common Pleas, in the rebuilt church of Gunby, close to Burgh station, must not be omitted.
Now let us turn our attention to peculiar types of brasses, and see how we stand in these. I will take three interesting types—cross brasses, palimpsests, and brasses of local workmanship.
The _Cross_ is not, I should say, a type that one would wish to be largely extended, as it seems to sacrifice the main object of the brass; but that it is capable of much grace is shown by the beautiful though mutilated cross at Grainthorpe, which stands on a rock in the sea, with carefully drawn fishes of five kinds swimming round it.
Of _Palimpsests_, or brasses used a second time, there is one of the most interesting in England at Norton Disney. This brass of the Disney family is notable as a very late instance (_c._ 1580) of armour. The reverse is the larger part of a plate with a long Dutch inscription relating to the founding of a chantry with daily mass in a now destroyed church at Middelburg in 1518. No doubt the brass was soon stolen, together with the endowment of the mass, in the Reformation. But the interest does not end here. Not many years ago it was found that the whole of this brass is in England, the smaller portion having been used again for one of the Dauntesay family, also _c._ 1580, at West Lavington in Wiltshire. There are several others, including one at Boston, with a lady on each face, and one of Sir Lionel Dymoke at Horncastle, which has a Flemish inscription on the reverse.
_Provincial workmanship_ needs, of course, a good deal of technical knowledge to detect. The immense majority of English brasses were made by London artists, and the only provincial schools seem to have been in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. One small mark usually found in provincial work is mentioned by Haines, namely, that the hands are held apart, one on each side of the breast, as in Lord Willoughby’s brass at Spilsby.
I must here mention two very singular brasses to be found in the county. I do not know of any instance of bodily infirmity commemorated except in the curious brass of William Palmer, 1520, at Ingoldmells. He has beside him a “stilt” or crutch, and in the inscription he is called, “William Palmer wyth yᵉ stylt.”