Part 20
So that the present position of several of our cathedral organs (which is fully justified by convenience and æsthetic satisfaction as being thoroughly Gothic) is only a survival of a very tolerably ancient practice. Playing the organ (“cuilibet cantancium organum, trahenti organa”) is mentioned in the Black Book, already quoted from, in 1322. Canon Christopher Wordsworth[103] considers that the terms _organizacio_, _organizare_, apply apparently to vocal music at the lectern in choir at the end of evensong and lauds. Canon Maddison mentions that one of the vicars received a fee as late as 1536 for playing the organ at the “Jesus Mass.” On the 10th September 1442, an order for 5 marcs from the fabrick chest was made for new organs in the great choir, to be constructed by one Arnold, “organer,” of Norwich, in the best manner possible. On 14th October (of the same year, I think), Robert Patryngton is commissioned to find with all speed “a scientific man” who has skill to make the new organs in Lincoln choir. The organ, which was remodelled and enlarged in 1897-8, was the work of Allen, the case being designed by the late E. J. Willson in the year 1826.
A word or two must suffice to describe the side screens of the choir, which separate it from the north and south choir aisles. Very probably, in addition to other uses, these screen-walls were built to connect together the piers of the choir arcades, at least in the three western bays, and so help to take off some of the thrust produced by the central tower, and were constructed after its fall. The north screen-wall has an arcade or triple shafts, ornamented with dog-tooth, and with twisted bosses like the rounded head of a drill or a coil of rope at the springing of the arches. The fourth bay eastwards is of later date, the capitals much under-cut, and the corbels at the apex of the string-course having birds among natural foliage. The fourth bay on the south side is very similar; the next has later work inserted again, for the shrine of Little St. Hugh, the second bay being like the northern three, and the first taken up with the staircase for the constable of the close, and a square grated window lighting the room in the organ-loft, already described. Only those who have seen the magnificent sculptured work on the side screens of the choir of Chartres, Amiens, and Notre Dame can appreciate what _can_ be done in decorating these screens.
The last stone screen to be described is in _Tattershall Collegiate Church_, founded in 1439 by Ralph, Lord Cromwell, Lord Treasurer of England.
The pulpitum, or choir screen, is of stone, and is situated between the eastern piers of the crossing. It is approached by a broad stone step, wider at the southern than at the northern end. It is a solid screen-wall with a central passage, having on the north side a staircase leading to the loft above, and on the south side a door to a small room (in the same position as in the _Lincoln Minster_ screen), lit by three quatrefoils into the nave. The western face of the screen consists of three recesses, with wide ogee-headed arches, cusped internally, and ending in finials which run straight up to the cornice of the loft and are there cut off. There is a string-course at the apex of the arches; the intervening spaces are filled with shallow panels, having arched and cusped heads. The northern and southern ends of the screen are chamfered off, and there are traces of some pedestal and tabernacle work in the broken stonework about the height of the string-course, and again below the spring of the arches. The whole of this west front is finished off with a cresting of Tudor flowers. The central doorway takes up one of the recesses, the oak doors being mainly original, though great hooks for hinges still exist in the stonework behind them. The other two recesses exhibit very evident manifestations of having once contained altars, there being small pillar piscinæ in the south side of each recess, and marks of where the altar slabs were fitted to the work behind. They were in the same position as those at Bishop Le Hart’s screen at Norwich, at the beautiful screen in Glasgow Cathedral, at Eton College, at the eastward screen of Gloucester Cathedral, and at Roche Abbey. Altars in the same position still exist abroad, as at Lierre, Aerschot, Dixmude, and Brou. At Louvain (St. Pierre) the side arches have, unfortunately, been opened out, and the altars removed, and the same process has been gone through with the side arches at Exeter Cathedral.
On the eastern side of the screen at _Tattershall_, facing the chancel, is a doorway with a four-centred arch, square-headed above, with the spandrils filled in with the Tudor rose. Above the doorway, as at _Lincoln_, only here in stone, is a projecting three-sided feature ornamented with a band of panelling which extends across the whole width of the screen, and is similar to those already described on the western side. Below the band the screen-wall is blank, no doubt for the canopied stalls, of which there are some fragments as well as the stone bases left in the church. The upper edge of this front of the screen is finished off with Tudor flowers, which, however, are not pierced through completely as they were on the nave side. The loft is protected on each face, east and west, by a solid wall, 4 feet 7 inches in height, with a coped projecting portion behind the Tudor cresting on the west side. In the projection into the chancel there are two stone book-rests, one in the middle, 2 feet long by 1 foot 3 inches high, occupying the space behind the three middle Tudor flowers; it is 3 feet 7 inches from the floor, and has a ledge about 1½ inches wide at the lower edge to hold the book safely. The second one faces north-east, and occupies the space behind the two outer Tudor flowers; it is a couple of inches less in length. An example of much the same kind—a stone book-rest—can still be seen at the east side of the loft of the Jubé in the monastic church of Valleria at Sion, in the Rhone valley.
The rood-beam and rood probably stood across the chancel arch, above the loft, as there are marks on both pillars of considerable damage about two feet below the capitals.
From the south end of the loft a doorway gives access to a turret staircase leading up to the roof; the turret has evidently been higher, and has probably served as the bell turret for the _Sanctus_ bell. The date of the screen has been supposed to be settled by an inscription recorded by Holles:—
ORATE PRO ANIMA ROBERTI DE WHALLEY HUJUS COLLEGII, QUI HOC OPUS FIERI FECIT ANNO DOMINI MCCCCCXXVIII, CUJUS ANIMA PROPICIETUR DEUS. AMEN.
He seems to have been buried beneath its archway.[104] But the work is evidently contemporaneous with the rest of the church, as shown especially by the staircase turret, and there is no trace whatever of any Renaissance feeling. Probably the inscription refers rather to some decoration, colour or the like, on the screen. It is curious that this screen possesses the only instance of cusped arches in the church.
PARISH CHANCEL-SCREENS
Simple—as the beginnings of all artistic work are—are the earliest chancel-screens of this country, and the progress from simple forms to the very rich and complex ones of the Perpendicular Period is as evident in wooden screen-work as it is in the history of tracery in stone. Probably the earliest wooden screen-work in the country exists in the Church of St. Nicholas, Compton, Surrey. The eastern end of this church, of Late Norman date, is in two storeys, the lower one forming the sanctuary, vaulted, and opening to the west with a rich Late Norman semicircular arch. Railing off the upper floor above this arch is a screen, consisting of a series of semicircular arches springing from cylindrical or octagonal shafts, with moulded bases and caps, almost certainly of twelfth-century date, and thus coëval with the Late Norman or Transitional portions of the church. In the exquisite little chapel at _Kirkstead_ is the earliest wooden screen-work in the county (and, saving Compton, in the country), which has probably been the upper portion of a choir-screen, in the back of two pews. It is composed altogether of thirteen bays, divided equally between the seats. Each bay consists of a lancet-headed trefoil supported by octagonal pillars with moulded capitals and bases. The total height of the work is 2 feet 9 inches, and it consists of oak throughout. This screen was considered by the late Bishop of Nottingham to be coëval with the chapel itself—_i.e._ to have been made about the first quarter of the thirteenth century. In Rochester Cathedral is (or was) some screen-work of the same date and character. In Thurcaston Church, Leicestershire, is a screen consisting of plain panel-work in the lower part, and of a series of open arches above, trefoiled in the heads, and springing from slender cylindrical shafts, with moulded bases and caps, being almost identical (save in having cylindrical pillars) with the example from _Kirkstead_. In Stanton Harcourt Church, Oxfordshire, is a very similar screen, only with circular annulated pillars; this is considered to be forty or fifty years later in date—_i.e._ about 1260, about the same date as the screen at St. Andrew’s, Chinnor, in the same county.
The screens of Decorated and Perpendicular date may be taken together in general description, more especially as the essential feature of _Lincolnshire_ screens—an ogee arch—appears in both and in nearly every instance.
Firstly, then, a beam runs transversely and horizontally across from pillar to pillar of the chancel arch, or in front thereof, sometimes supported by corbels at either end, as has been the case at _Heckington_ and _Wellingore_. This may or may not be the rood-beam (_i.e._ the beam on which the rood stood). In some cases the rood-beam was quite separate from and independent of the screen, as at _Claypole_, where there are corbels for it on each side of and high up on the chancel arch; at _Legbourne_, where the same arrangement is made, and in the _Morning Chapel, Lincoln Minster_. At _Blyton_ the rood-beam remains above the chancel arch; above the upper side of the beam the wall is recessed, probably to allow of a boarded and panelled background to the rood and the other two figures. Further support to this beam (of the screen) is afforded by a number of stout uprights from the floor (where is sometimes a horizontal wooden or a stone base) to the rood-beam, dividing the screen into bays, varying in number with the size of the screen, whereof the middle one is generally the largest, though at _Frampton_, _Stixwould_, _Mumby_, _Middle Rasen_, _Lusby_, and _Miningsby_ it is of the same size as the others.
The middle bay is as 13 to 11, for example, at _Cotes_, as 2 to 1 at _East Kirkby_, as nearly 5 to 4 at _Moulton_, as 3½ to 2 at _Bratoft_, and as 3 to 2 at _Thorpe St. Peter’s_. These uprights are often formed into small pillars in the front, and occasionally on the eastward aspect also, or, in more Perpendicular work, they are fashioned as slender buttresses, _Cotes_ and _Sleaford_ giving examples of the former, while _East Kirkby_ does so of the latter method. From these uprights, at about two-thirds of their height, spring more or less pointed arches, with their apices at the beam or just below it. Generally, the lower third of the screen is composed of solid panelling, sunk and with foliated and traceried heads; though at _Barrow-on-Humber_, at _Spalding_, and at _Alford_ the panels are perforated, probably this is not original. Along the upper border of these panels often runs a scroll or vignette of open work, as at _Winthorpe_ and at _East Kirkby_, and of Tudor flowers at _Croft_, while it is embattled at _Westborough_ and _Yarburgh_.
From the middle of the transom (if it may be so termed), which runs along from upright to upright, below the open portion of the screen, in a number of Lincolnshire examples, arises a mullion up to the spring of the arch, and there divides into two ogee arches, as at _Theddlethorpe_, _Saltfleetby_ (_All Saints’_), _Mumby_, _Ulceby_ (_St. Nicholas_), and _Marsh Chapel_. In some of these cases the mullion divides up into two pointed arches above the ogees, and at _Middle Rasen_, where there are three ogees and two mullions in each bay, the arches intersect and are carried through the spandrils, which are now open (probably an effect of restoration). In other instances the mullion divides up into two almost semicircular arches, which form the lower and outer portion of a large ogee, as at _Cotes_, _Denton_, _Stixwould_, _Scrivelsby_, _Miningsby_, _Swineshead_, _Scotter_, and _Folkingham_. At _St. Peter’s, Barton_, there are two of these ogees in each bay. At _Swineshead_, _Leverton_, and _Friskney_, these arches beneath the ogees are more pointed in character. At _Miningsby_, on the west front of the mullions, are slender round pillars rising from the transom up to the point of the ogee, and there finishing in tiny crocketed pinnacles, capped by a finial. At _Claypole_ and _Althorpe_ the arrangement is much the same as at _Cotes_, but the mullions are absent; whether this is original or not seems uncertain. There are no traces of them on the transom of either screen. At _Cotes_ and elsewhere the quatrefoil space between the heads of the arches and the upper part of the ogee is filled by a shield. Another form, which seems like a development of the _Claypole_ scheme (although it almost certainly is much earlier in date), has no mullions, and no inner halves of the arches; from their outer halves springs an ogee, making an outline which has been called—not inaptly—the fleur-de-lis form. An excellent example of this is given by the _East Kirkby_ screen.
Where there is no central mullion, the ogee simply springs from the uprights and terminates in a finial at the rood-beam, as at _Sleaford_, _Ewerby_, _Saxilby_, _Moulton_, _Winthorpe_, _Croft_, and _Fishtoft_, and in thirteen other instances. The same arrangement is found at _Spalding_, but the ogee is very depressed, and so the finial ends much lower than in the screens just mentioned. At _Bratoft_ there is an almost semicircular arch beneath the ogee, freely cusped internally, somewhat the same as at _Thorpe St. Peter’s_, _All Saints’_, _Benington_ (where the upper edge of the arch forming the base of the ogee is embattled), and _Addlethorpe_ (tower arch screen). These ogees are profusely crocketed, generally, of course, owing to their date, with the square-shaped leaves which mark the Perpendicular Period, and they are also more or less elaborately cusped internally. Special notice should be taken of the crockets at _Thorpe St. Peter’s_ and at _Burgh_ (now across tower arch), which represents pelicans in various attitudes.
The middle bay partakes of the character of the lateral ones, though it is usually so different in width. Thus at _Cotes_ it has a flattened wider ogee, with the descending mullion cut off; at _Alford_ (where there are no mullions), a flattened wider ogee, with a depressed arch under it; at _Miningsby_ (where all the bays are of the same width) the inner halves of the sub-arches disappear as well as the central mullion; at _Denton_, a flattened wider ogee; and at _Swineshead_, a larger and taller ogee. At _Lusby_ the central bay ogee is identical with those of the sides; the same is true of _Stixwould_, with the absence of the descending mullion—also, in a different style, of _Mumby_; while at _Theddlethorpe_, _Saltfleetby_, and _Moulton_, this bay has a depressed arch with three ogees on it, the last named being also remarkable for having “a series of five shallow hoods or canopies groined in miniature underneath, to simulate vaulting.”[105] At _Barton_ there are two ogees, at _Middle Rasen_ three. At _Sleaford_ and _Ewerby_ there is the same kind of arch, with two ogees upon it, but in the centre the vaulting continues downward to a cap and shaft, which ends on the arch; also at _Spalding_, only without the ogees.
At _Claypole_ and _Althorpe_ the central shaft is carried down much below the spring of the ogees, and ends on a four-centred arch. _East Kirkby_ has two ogees on an ogival arch beneath. At _Saxilby_ the central feature takes the form of a round-headed arch in a square-headed bay with the spandrils filled with circles, surmounted by seven small bays, each containing a crocketed ogee terminating in a finial. At _Barrow_ there is a pointed arch, with pierced spandrils. At _Benniworth_ there is a large ogee with curious tracery over it (? modern), entirely different from the lateral bays. At _Ewerby_, already mentioned, this bay has on the inner side of each ogee a beautiful wheel; on the outer side a fine network of tracery. At _Folkingham_ the centre arch is carved and crocketed with grapes and vine-leaf ornament. At _Scrivelsby_, between two ogees is a large wheel of tracery, with two smaller ones filling in the spaces on each side.
All screens probably had a door or doors, though but few of these are left in Lincolnshire. At _Westborough_ the original doors exist; they are square-headed, with tracery above and panelling below, similar to that of the side bays. _Cotes_, _Spalding_, _Theddlethorpe_, _East Kirkby_, _Moulton_, _Helpringham_, _Thorpe St. Peter’s_, and _Barton_ still retain their doors, but only the lower panels are left.
Also slender buttresses have been mentioned above, as being moulded out of the uprights. Occasionally there were to the front (western face) of these uprights, especially on each side of the central doorway, flying buttresses with crocketed attachments. Remains of these are still to be seen at _East Kirkby_, _Moulton_, _Fishtoft_, _Thorpe St. Peter’s_, _Bratoft_, _Croft_, _Legbourne_, _Crowland_, and _Mumby_. At _Grimoldby_, where the lower half of the screen exists, two buttresses project some way westward and are well panelled. The extreme form of these, where the upright part of the buttresses was fashioned into a candlestand, may be exemplified by Ranworth screen (Norfolk), where the buttresses, panelled as to their lower two-thirds, separate the central passage from an altar on either side.
The intervening spaces between the ogee and the confining arch will be filled in with delicate tracery, varying of course in style with the age and locality of each particular screen. Whatever the faults of Perpendicular work may be in stone, the repetition of similar forms, the richness of the detailed ornament, and the lightness of the tracery make Perpendicular _wooden_ screens, more perhaps than any others, the best representatives of the _Cancelli_ (lattice-work), and very valuable portions of the furniture of a church.
In some churches, as at Laughton-en-le-Morthen, there was a low _stone_ screen, buttressed, which would carry a lighter screen of wood. Instances of a similar arrangement may be seen at Nantwich and _Morton-by-Bourne_, and there is a preparation for it at _Wellingore_ and _Boston_.
If the 200 churches mentioned in Mr. E. Peacock’s English Church Furniture be taken as a fair sample of _Lincolnshire_ churches, as they well may be, almost every one possessed a rood-loft, which may now be described.
Westwards generally (but eastwards only at Worstead) from the beam, which often forms a kind of breast summer to the gallery about to be described, would extend a platform of varying width (at Selattyn in Shropshire it is 10 feet wide, usually about 4 feet), supported by a coved cornice, ornamented by ribs which intersect sometimes in a very complicated pattern, as at _Sleaford_, and with—as vignette—a band of carving, such as vine-leaf and grape, along the front. On very many screens, which have lost their gallery, traces can be seen where the ribs and springers for its support have been attached. The eastern portion of the gallery remains at _East Kirkby_, starting from the top of the screen, and being coved independently thereof. From both sides—east and west (or only one _west_)—of this platform would rise up a panelled screen, which sometimes, as at Upper Sheringham, consisted of open work. This gallery—the rood-loft—would be approached by one or more staircases in the piers of the chancel arch or in the north or south walls of the aisles. There are two of these staircases at _Boston_, _Sleaford_, and _Grantham_, while _Spalding_, _Heckington_, and most of the other churches in the county have but one.
The only complete mediæval rood-loft in the county is in the little church of _Cotes by Stow_. It has been carefully repaired, with foliated and traceried panels, and a vignette of grapes and vine-leaves along the lower border. The central projection is interesting and original, and here is evidently not for the crucifix, as that would be fixed at the eastern side of the loft. A similar projection will be seen at _Sleaford_, and probably both were used for preaching. They are exactly reversed in position from those at _Lincoln Minster_ and _Tattershall_, and from that mentioned in the contract for the rood-loft at Great St. Mary’s, Cambridge, in 1521, “wyth a pulpete into the mydds of ye quyer.”
There are several screens which yet retain the hang-over, making the floor of the rood-loft. The reason for this at _Sleaford_ is given in Mr. Peacock’s book: “Itm̅—the rode lofte taken downe all save the florthe wc̅h remayneth standing wc̅h we cannot take doune for yt is a waie frome one house to another so yt̅ we have noe passadge but that waie to ytt”—which may mean from chapel to chapel, or from aisle roof to aisle roof.
A few varieties of screens, with or without lofts, may most conveniently be noticed here before dealing at greater length with the rood-loft and its accessories. Screens are met with which most certainly have had rood-lofts, the evidence of which is the existence of remains of the springers or ribs for the coved support of the loft on one or both sides of the screen, and the rough framework above, whence the rood-loft floor has been stripped. But no trace can be found in the church either of rood-loft staircase, doors thereto, or of corbels to support the rood-loft. Also the screen may not fit its place. Of course, in some instances, the rood-loft staircase may have been entirely concealed or taken away. But it is almost certain in other instances that the screen is not in its original church. Most probably an example of this is the _Ewerby_ screen, which is too wide for the chancel, and has evident traces of having had a rood-loft. This screen has in all likelihood come from the neighbouring priory of _Haverholme_. Very likely the same applies to the wooden screen in the north aisle of _Crowland Abbey_; it does not fit (has been removed eastwards within this century), has evidence of having had a rood-loft, and there are no signs of anything of the kind in that part of the church. It may have been the rood-screen in the nave, or the very one mentioned, of the year 1413, below. And at _Cadney_, near _Brigg_, is a screen said to have come from _Newstead on Ancholme_.
In other churches, on the contrary, we may find abundant evidence in the shape of rood-loft staircase and doors, and corbels, for the former existence of a rood-loft. The screen, too, may seem quite to fill its position and not show any trace of having had a rood-loft on it, and this not merely from having had the coving neatly removed (as may possibly have been the case in some churches), but by the style altogether of the upper portion of the screen. There is no coving, and therefore no pointed arch over the ogee between each upright, forming consequently a square-headed aperture instead of a pointed one.