Part 10

At Dunster, Somersetshire, the Yarn-Market Cross, as it is called, is octagonal on plan, with an immense span of roof relieved by dormers (Fig. 177). "The arrangement of the timbers, extending radially from the centre of the cross, is somewhat remarkable," writes Alex. Gordon. This cross was built about the year 1600. The weather-vane at the summit of the lantern bears the date 1647.

The Market Cross, or Butter Cross, at Witney, Oxfordshire (Fig. 14), was built, according to Joseph Skelton, by William Blake, of Coggs, in 1683. Lavish renovation has now robbed it of much of its proper charm, but the planning of the roof, with its gables facing four ways, constitutes an entirely delightful composition.

At Milverton, Somersetshire, the Market Cross, commonly called Fair Cross, was standing, and is referred to in an indenture dated March 1715 (Fig. 185). The vane bore the date 1706. Eight cylindrical columns of stone, surrounding the base and shaft of a medieval cross, sustained the shelter, above which was an upper chamber, used for storage only, access thereto being obtained by means of a ladder through the window opening in one of the sides. The chamber was covered with a slate-healed pyramid of eight cants. The cross, which, strangely enough, was in private ownership, was demolished by the proprietor himself in or about 1850.

The Market Cross at Nether Stowey, Somersetshire, was erected about 1750 on the site of an earlier cross, of which nothing but a few fragments of stone from the base had survived. The eighteenth-century structure was octagonal on plan, eight cylindrical columns supporting the eight-canted pyramidal roof, from the top of which rose a square turret, with a clock in the lower part, and a bell in the open bell-cote at the top (Fig. 184). Having been allowed to fall into dilapidation, the whole cross was swept away by the lord of the manor about 1860.

At Castle Combe, Wiltshire, the Market Cross is apparently another instance where the shelter was built up over an already existing stone cross (Figs. 173, 176). The latter has a bold, square socket, sculptured with late-Gothic tracery ornament. The shelter seems to be sixteenth-century work. Its pyramidal roof, supported on four stone piers, had lost the original summit of the cross-shaft before Buckler made his drawing of the north-west view of the cross. It was then surmounted by a sundial of the seventeenth or eighteenth century. Later restoration, however, has substituted a quasi-Gothic pinnacle.

At Lymm, Cheshire, though no market is now held there, the old Market Cross remains, a quaint and unusual structure, standing on the top of a boulder, with steps partly hewn out of the natural rock (Fig. 183). The cross is built of stone, and consists of a massive central pier, square on plan, between four smaller piers, likewise square, supporting the roof at the corners. The roof, cross-ridged, has pediments facing four ways, and surmounted each by a substantial hip-knob. On the faces of the pediments are sundials. From the centre of the roof rises a lofty weathercock with a wrought-iron frame.

The Malt Cross at Nottingham stood opposite the lower end of Sheep Lane, and is said to have been erected in 1714, although the old vane at the summit bore the date 1686. The structure, hexagonal on plan, and roofed with a cupola supported on Doric columns, was raised upon a three-foot high platform of four steps (Fig. 186). The boss surmounting the cupola had a sundial on each of its six sides. The Malt Cross was taken down, and the materials were sold by public auction in October 1804.

As the seventeenth century advanced the market cross exhibited more and more marked divergence from the original architectural forms, including the abandonment of the cross on the summit, and the adoption, in many instances, of a sundial in place of the cross. This tendency only increased in the eighteenth century. Instances of it are afforded by the market crosses--rectangular on plan--at Woodstock (Fig. 189) and Wakefield (Fig. 190). Other eighteenth-century market crosses, _e.g._, those of Bungay (1789) (Fig. 187) and Swaffham (1783) (Fig. 188), might almost be mistaken in appearance for bandstands, but from the fact that, aloft upon their lead-covered domes, the allegorical figure of Justice, emphasising the duty of fair dealing, continues to proclaim their purpose of open-air shelters for the transaction of business.

VII. UNCLASSIFIED VARIETIES

It is not easy to devise a system for the classification of crosses, which shall, without loss of precision, be both exhaustive enough and comprehensive enough to embrace every possible variety. There remain, then, a few anomalous instances which seem not to admit of inclusion in any of the categories already considered.

The first to note is Doncaster cross (Fig. 191), of which an engraving was published in _Vetusta Monumenta_, July 1753, from an old painting, formerly the property of Lord Fairfax, who sold it in 1672 to Alderman Thoresby, of Leeds. An ancient manuscript, accompanying the painting, recorded all that was known of the history of the cross. The latter bore on the shaft, at about a third of its height up from the bottom, an inscription in Norman French: "This is the cross of Ote de Tilli, on whose soul God have mercy. Amen." The said Ote de Tilli was seneschal of the Earl of Conisborough, and was a witness of the charter of foundation of Kirkstall Abbey in 1152. His name occurs in other charters of King Stephen's reign, and also of others in the reigns of Henry II. and Richard I. The cross stood at the south end of the town of Doncaster, on the London road. The shaft was 18 ft. high, and consisted of a large central cylinder with four engaged cylindrical shafts, having a total circumference of 11 ft. 7 in. It stood upon five circular steps, resting upon a hexagonal base or plinth. On the summit of the stone cross there formerly rose five slender iron crosses, the central one higher than the rest; but in 1644 the monument was defaced by the troops under the Earl of Manchester, losing its iron crosses. To make up the deficiency the mayor, in 1678, erected four dials, a ball, and vane on the top of the cross. Of not dissimilar plan is the stump of a shaft at Elstow (Fig. 192), in Bedfordshire. Again, there is a tall pillar of clustered columns in three stages at Aldborough (Fig. 193). All three examples appear to date from the thirteenth century.

At Chester, where Watergate Street ends and Eastgate Street begins, and where, at the point of junction, Bridge Street leads off at a right angle southward to the Dee Bridge, there stood the High Cross on a hexagonal platform or step outside the entrance to the Pentice, which itself extended the whole length of the south side of St Peter's Church. The design of this cross was so abnormal that one is at a loss to place it under any known classification. A plain cylindrical column supported an immense and lofty superstructure, exceeding the height of shaft and socket put together, and consisting of a double-storeyed lantern, with two tiers of niches for statues surrounding it. The whole was surmounted by an orb and cross, but the drawing by Randle Holme the third, among the Harleian manuscripts at the British Museum (Fig. 24), gives two alternative details to finish off the summit, viz., a crucifix, or a crowned shield of the royal arms. The High Cross was newly gilded in 1529. It was overthrown and defaced by the Puritans in 1646, or, according to another account, in 1648. "In 1804 the remains were discovered buried in the porch of St Peter's Church, and were taken to Netherleigh House, and there used to form a kind of ornamental rockwork in the gardens." The late Archdeacon Barber, writing in 1910, says that in the Grosvenor Museum at Chester there is a plain stone block, which, though without any of the richly sculptured ornament depicted by Holme, purports to be the head of the ancient cross, while "the shaft is said to be in the grounds of Plas Newydd, at Llangollen."

There is, again, a certain type of cross which cannot exactly be classified under any of the previously described varieties. The type in question, as exemplified at Alphington (Fig. 199) and at St Loye's, Wonford, near Exeter (Fig. 198), appears to be peculiar to Devonshire. At first sight the cross looks much like a variety of monolith, but the cross-head is in fact worked in a separate block of stone. The shortness of the arms, as compared with the height of the upper limb, is striking. Another feature is a small niche or hollow sunk in the face of the cross at the point of intersection. For the rest, the socket does not differ at all from many examples occurring in the shaft-on-steps group.

The cross-head at Mitton, Yorkshire (Figs. 194, 195), is peculiar inasmuch as the crucifixion is sculptured on both faces, but in totally different fashions. That on the west face has the arms stretched horizontally, within a sexfoil frame, and might well be of the thirteenth century. Whereas the sculpture on the east face, though much more weatherworn, is of a style that could not have been designed before the late-fourteenth, or perhaps even the fifteenth century. The arms of the Christ in this instance are drawn upwards in an unusually oblique direction. It is impossible that these two representations could have been executed at one and the same date. The circular outline of the head, too, is peculiar, and suggestive rather of a gable-cross than of a standing cross. Possibly the west face only was sculptured in the first instance, for a gable-cross, the sculpture on the east face being added later in order to adapt the stone for the head of a churchyard cross. Anyhow, since Buckler's drawings were made, the head has been mounted on a modern shaft and pedestal.

A very strange socket, comprising two stages, both cylindrical with a slight batter, stands to the north of the church in the churchyard at Ripley, Yorkshire (Fig. 196). The topmost stage is about 2 ft. 3½ in. high, and the diameter of its upper bed is 2 ft. 9 in. It has had sunk into it, from the shaft of a cross, a mortise 8½ in. deep by 18 in. by 10 in. The bottom stage is 2 ft. high by about 4 ft. 8 in., the diameter of its upper bed, which varies from 6 to 7½ in. wider all round than the foot of the upper stage. A most peculiar feature is the series of eight cavities averaging 6 in. deep and from 14 to 17 in. high, by 7 to 10½ in. wide at the top. It cannot be that these cavities were receptacles for offerings, for eight of them would be largely in excess of any reasonable requirements of alms-gathering. It has been called a "weeping cross" on the supposition that the hollows were meant for penitents to kneel in. But this again cannot be, for the spaces available are not nearly large enough for such a purpose. It may be that the bottom stage of the Ripley cross is, after all, nothing else than the inverted bowl of a font, and the hollows surrounding it niches for statuary. The problem, however, is one which has not hitherto been satisfactorily explained.

At Bisley, Gloucestershire, in the west end of the churchyard, stands a singular structure of stone, of early-thirteenth-century work (Fig. 197). Circular on plan at the foot and hexagonal above, it now measures about 12 ft. high, the original cross or finial at the apex having disappeared. This monument has been variously described as a cross, a well-head, or a bone-house. Probably it is rather a combination between a cross (for with such it must almost certainly have been crowned) and a lantern for the "poor souls' light." The trefoil-headed openings in each cant seem designed expressly for emitting the light of a lamp burning within, while the dormer-like hoods of the said openings would shelter the flame from wind and rain. Such lantern pillars are known to have been in use in the Middle Ages, though they have very rarely survived to our own times. There exists, however, a fine example of late-fourteenth or early-fifteenth century work, standing outside the north-east part of the Dom at Regensburg, in Bavaria.

VIII. LYCHGATES

Lychgates are so named from the old Anglo-Saxon word _lich_, or German _leiche_, meaning corpse, because they stood at the entrance of the churchyard, where the bearers of the dead might deposit their burden, and rest awhile before passing through, and into the church for the solemn funeral rites. Some lychgates are actually provided with a long flat slab for this very purpose, as is the case, for instance, at Ashprington and Atherington, both in Devonshire, and at Chiddingfold, Surrey (Fig. 227). Usually also they are fitted with benches.

The rubric of the Prayer Book of 1549 directed that the officiating minister at funerals should go to meet the corpse at the "church style," _i.e._, lychgate; and again, according to the Prayer Book now in use (of the year 1662), the clergyman and the clerks meeting the corpse "at the entrance of the churchyard" (_i.e._, at the lychgate, wherever one exists), there begin the burial service, and thence precede the body into the church.

In some places, as at Heston and Hayes, in Middlesex, and at Chalfont St Giles, the entrance gates form turnstiles, being fixed to a central post, which revolves on a pivot.

There is hardly scope for any very great variety of types in lychgates, but they may be classified generally under certain main groups, viz., first, the porch-shape, in which the roof-ridge has the same axis as the passage way; secondly, the shed-like form, in which the roof-ridge runs transversely to the axial line of the passage way; thirdly, a rare variety, embodying both the previous features, and such that is exemplified by the charming lychgate at Clun, Shropshire (Fig. 235), where two roof-ridges cross one another at right angles; or at Berrynarbor, Devonshire, where the lychgate is on the plan of a cross; and, lastly, lychgates formed by the combination of the requisite passage way with a church house or other building. To this class belongs the entrance to the churchyard at Penshurst, Kent, an example well known and admired for its picturesqueness. Other instances are those of Hartfield in Sussex (Fig. 201), Long Compton in Warwickshire, Chalfont St Giles in Buckinghamshire (Fig. 204), and Bray in Berkshire (Figs. 202, 203). The last-named specimen is of exceptional interest, not only because it contains an ancient chapel, but also because it bears, on one of the uprights of the entrance, the date of its construction, 1448, a most unusual circumstance. The penthouse gallery, shown on the left of the photograph, is a modern addition. It will also be noticed, on comparison of the two illustrations, that the west window of the old chapel-chamber has, since 1879, been robbed of some of its mullions, and now consists of three lights only.

Two Welsh examples of lychgates, with a room built over each, are enumerated by the Rev. Elias Owen, in 1886, viz., Derwen, Denbighshire, where the upper storey is utilised for parochial purposes, and Whitford, Flintshire, where it served as a schoolroom. Latterly, "when the school increased in numbers, the lychgate was blocked up and formed into a class-room" in addition to the upper part. The same writer remarks that a fully equipped lychgate includes seats, a lychcross and a lychstone. As a rule, both lychcrosses and lychstones "have disappeared ... but underneath the roof of Caerwys (Flintshire) lychgate are still to be seen the beam and socket, where once stood the wooden lychcross, and on the ground are traceable the foundation stones of the two lychseats, and of the lychstone in the centre of the porch. This rest for the coffin was a low wall" of about a coffin's length. Some of the distinctive features of lychgates were destroyed in the eighteenth century. Thus "the beam that stretched from wall to wall," and had a wooden cross inserted into it, "has, in nearly every instance, been sawn away." The above-named example at Caerwys, however, according to the _Inventory_ of the Royal Commission, still survives. The place was visited in July 1910, and the report runs: "Within the covered lychgate is a pre-Reformation oak frame, the two uprights supporting a beam in which a cross was fixed," the ancient custom having been to set down corpses on their way to burial upon the lychstone immediately beneath this cross.

The distribution of lychgates in various districts is most unequal. Thus nearly every one of the twenty-four churches of the Deanery of Woodleigh, Devonshire, is said to possess a lychgate. An instance, which may safely be pronounced unique, is that of Troutbeck, Westmorland, where there are, or were, no less than three stone lychgates to one and the same churchyard.

Lychgates are constructed, it goes without saying, of the most convenient native material available. Thus, the Welsh examples illustrated are of indigenous stone; whereas in Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Kent, and other districts in which freestone is not available, the lack of it is amply compensated by the development of the resources of timber. Kent, though deficient in churchyard crosses, may justly claim to rival, if not indeed to surpass, the other counties of England in respect of the admirable lychgates which it contains. The handsomest stands at Beckenham (Figs. 205-207), on the south side of the old churchyard. The gate is of the shed variety, but the roof-ridge, instead of running the whole length from end to end (as it does at Lenham in the same county (Figs. 220, 221, and 222), at Ashwell, Hertfordshire (Figs. 215-218), Hayes (Fig. 200) and Heston (Figs. 213 and 214) in Middlesex, Morwenstow in Cornwall (Fig. 219), Isleham in Cambridgeshire (Figs. 223-225), and Goring in Oxfordshire (Fig. 226)), is hipped, with very charming result. But hipping alone is not enough to ensure full æsthetic effect. One has only to compare two examples of hipped roofs, viz., that at Beckenham, already named, and the not dissimilar instance at Staple (Figs. 208, 209), in the same county, to realise what very different artistic values two gates, based on one identical motif, may possess. The Beckenham lychgate is far superior to the other, no doubt because of the excellent proportions of its parts. The old drawing, by Buckler (Fig. 206), shows that at one time the large oblique struts were wanting; a deficiency which altered the whole appearance of the lychgate, tending, as it did, to make the roof look heavy and ill-balanced. The large struts, however, had been supplied by 1871. The pronounced tilt of the roof toward the eaves, by means of sprockets (see the section drawings, Fig. 207), gives additional character to this beautiful lychgate. At the present day it cannot, unfortunately, be seen to proper advantage, because of the intrusive presence of a modern brick wall, abutting close up against either end of the gate, and concealing its lower part. The roof is now tiled, but it is believed that it was originally thatched, or shingled. The difference of effect produced by varying the number of bays is illustrated by comparing the lychgates of West Wickham (Figs. 211, 212) and Beckenham, both of one bay each; those of Isleham, Staple, Lenham, and Ashwell, all of two bays each, and that of Anstey with its three bays. As to the last-named, Buckler's amazingly incorrect draughtsmanship in the right hand lower corner fortunately does not avail to disguise the sturdy dignity and grand outline of this magnificent example.

At Ashwell, Hertfordshire, the timber lychgate, which forms the south-west entrance to the churchyard, probably dates from the fifteenth century. The three standards carrying the horizontal lintel are so much more massive at the top than at the bottom that they must certainly have been cut from tree trunks inverted, like the angle spurs used in the construction of ancient timber-framed houses. The windbrace in the roof, and the engrailed vergeboard under the end gable should be noticed.

The lychgate which forms the western entrance to the churchyard at Lenham, Kent, comprises two passage ways, each having a four-centred arch of timber overhead. The narrower gate, that on the south, has the head cambered out of a single piece of oak to the four-centred outline. The northern, the wider gate, has the head built together of two pieces, shaped to the requisite form. The supporting struts and braces are much worn with age and weather, but happily unrestored. The roof is tiled. The main part of the timberwork is of the fifteenth century, says Mr E. C. Lee, except the roof, the rafters of which, built into the adjoining house, are "very poor and rough.... The strutting at A is bad in construction, all the strain being thrown on the pins." There is a tradition that this gate was brought hither from Canterbury some time about 1770; but it is, in all probability, without historical basis, as also are many other traditions of a similar kind.

The lychgate at Pulborough, Sussex (Fig. 236), is an example of a pyramidal roof, and may be contrasted with the cross-ridged construction of the lychgates at Clun in Shropshire (Fig. 235), or Monnington-on-Wye in Herefordshire (Fig. 237). All three are square on plan, and built of timber. The ornamental wood-patterning at Clun is closely allied to the typical domestic work of Shropshire and Cheshire, only in this instance it is open instead of being filled in between with wattle and daub.

Some lychgates belonging to the shed type are of composite materials, partly masonry and partly timberwork. To this class belong the gates at Pattingham, Staffordshire (Fig. 234), with its timber-framed gables in the long roof; Llanfillo, Brecknockshire (Fig. 229), and Clodock, Herefordshire (Fig. 228). The last-named is of uncommon character, having timber posts supplemented by masonry pier-walls, with recesses, like niches, in their inner sides. The stone piers are each 8 ft. 8 in. long by 2 ft. thick, and the clear opening between them is 7 ft. 4 in. wide. The roofing is of stone slates. It is believed to have been erected in 1667.

To judge of the respective effects produced by timberwork on the one hand, and stonework on the other, one has only to compare the porch-like lychgates of Rustington, Sussex (Fig. 230), and Boughton Monchelsea, Kent (Fig. 231), with those of Talyllyn (Fig. 232) and Llandrillo-yn-Rhos (Fig. 233). It happens that the date of the construction of the last-named is known, viz., 1677. Otherwise, both this one and Talyllyn are so rude in construction, and so conspicuous for the absence of architectural detail, that it would be rash to attempt to assign a more precise date to either of them than some period subsequent to Queen Elizabeth's reign.