Part 13
V.-- Doorway leading into the Cloisters. --This beautiful specimen of art is one of the very finest in the abbey. The elegance of the design is only surpassed by the elaborate taste and skill displayed in its execution. The clustered mouldings of the doorway; the wavy multifoil outline of the inner arch; the beautifully carved ornament that surrounds the whole like a riband of delicate lacework; the whole crowned with the symbolic trefoil resting on the apex of the arch, present a combination of features--all harmonizing, and all elaborately adjusted to one another--rarely to be met with even among the masterpieces of Decorated Gothic.[185]
Looking through this doorway, the window in the distance is that of the southern aisle, through which are seen the woods on the opposite hill; and inside the walls the ivy is seen climbing in verdant masses along the arches and pillars of the nave. Under the broken steps, where the group of figures is represented, are the remains of sepulchral stone-slabs, covering the resting-place of the old abbots, and formerly inlaid with the symbols of their holy office, as
represented in the engraving. But the _brasses_ have long since disappeared, and left only the empty grooves to which they had been so elaborately adjusted by the skilful artists of that day. Brasses, or Latten , are considered to be good illustrations of the architecture of their period, owing to the designs of canopies, crosiers, &c. delineated upon them. They are seldom to be met with in any reign prior to that of Edward the Second; nor did they become general till towards the close of the fourteenth century, when the effigies are commonly surmounted by arched canopies, ogee-shaped and crocketed, of the same kind of inlaid work elaborately engraven. These subsequently vary, according to the style of the age, and in general rather preceding than following it. Of the brasses, which--owing to the rank and character of its founder and benefactors, as well as its abbots and others--must have formed no inconsiderable feature in the decorations of Tinterne Abbey, not a fragment remains.
Where Latten marked the abbots’ grave, And sculpture spread her trophies round it; Rank weeds in wild luxuriance wave, And mock the gaudy shrine that crowned it. Here, they who for the Cross had died, And they who led the way to glory-- Here mitred pomp, and martial pride, Have not a stone to tell their story.
VI.-- Doorway leading into the Sacristy. --This is a double doorway--a specimen of the Early English--divided by a moulded shaft, with a circular opening, or quatrefoil, over it. The outer arch is deeply ‘recessed,’ consisting of five or six successive shafts, or mouldings, on either side, without capitals, and meeting above at the centre of the arch. The inner arches are foliated, and the cusps richly fluted. Clasping this elegant and massive structure, the ivy has so incorporated itself with the masonry, that--massive as it is--art must gradually yield to that natural process which seems to make every root of ivy, if once insinuated between the jointed stones, act like a fulcrum for their dislodgment--
“Ha, ha!” laughs the Ivy, “let men uprear Their ‘ Castles and Abbeys ,’ far and near; Pile upon pile, let their fabrics rise, Darkening the earth, and mocking the skies; Lifting their turrets so haughtily-- Boasting their grandeur--but what care I? Buttress and bastion, cloister and hall-- _I conquer them all--I conquer them all!_”
VII.-- The Refectory. [186]--Of this building enough remains to show, that, in their palmy days, the Abbots of Tinterne had a truly noble hall for their private and state entertainments. Of refectories in general, some account has been already given at page 51 of this volume. Of the style of architecture employed in this dining-hall, the numerous windows, with their mullioned partitions, tall shafts, and foliated arches, face-shafts, and corbel heads along the walls, from which sprang the lofty groined vault that covered and connected the whole, present a tolerably distinct picture.
“Along the roof a maze of mouldings slim, Like veins that o’er the hand of lady wind, Embraced in closing arms the key-stone trim, With hieroglyphs and cyphers quaint combined, The riddling art that charmed the Gothic mind.”
With regard to the minor details, we may notice the dole , a small double aperture, near the archway on the left; and on the opposite side, is another door through which the dishes were handed in from the kitchen. Near the dole is a low-arched doorway in the eastern wall, showing the passage by which communication was kept up with the adjoining offices, the hospitium, the locutorium, and the dormitories. The situation of the reading-desk, or lectern, will be seen by referring to the new plan of the abbey here introduced; and this closes our notice of the engraved illustrations.
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“On the whole,” says Grose, summing up his observations on Tinterne, “though this monastery is undoubtedly light and elegant, it wants that gloomy solemnity so essential to religious ruins; it wants those yawning vaults and dreary recesses, which strike the beholder with religious awe--make him almost shudder at entering them, and call into his mind all the tales of the nursery. Here, at one cast of the eye, the whole is comprehended, nothing is left for the spectator to guess or explore; and this defect is increased by the ill-placed neatness of the poor people who show the building, and by whose absurd labour the ground is covered over by a turf, as even and trim as that of a bowling-green, which gives the building more the air of an artificial ruin in a garden, than that of an ancient decayed abbey .”
“How unlike,” he adds, “the beautiful description of the poet!--
‘Half-buried there lies many a broken bust, And obelisk and urn, o’erthrown by time, And many a cherub here descends in dust, From the rent roof and portico sublime; Where reverend shrines in Gothic grandeur stood, The nettle or the noxious nightshade spreads; And ashlings, wafted from the neighbouring wood, Through the worn turrets wave their trembling heads.’”
These objections have been repeated by other writers of unquestionable taste; but we may venture to predict, that among the numerous strangers who annually resort to these deserted shrines, few will return home without expressions of unqualified admiration of “Tinterne, as it is.” The care employed by its noble owner in arresting the progress of decay, is creditable to his taste and reverence for antiquity. Had these ruins been consigned, as some would have had them, to the wasting hand of time, their vaulted wonders would long ere now have fallen piecemeal into the area beneath; but wherever a stone is observed to be losing its hold, the hand of art is immediately applied to restore it to its original place: and thus, what might have passed away in a few inclement seasons, has been propped up and secured for the delight of many generations to come.
And lo, these mouldering fragments to sustain, Her graceful network nature’s hand hath hung; Bound every arch with a supporting chain, And round each wall her living verdure flung; And o’er the floor that sepulchres the dead-- The saints and heroes of departed years; The flower of memory lifts its modest head, And morning sheds her tributary tears.--_W.B._
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Poetical Votaries. --Having quoted so largely from chroniclers and other prose writers in the preceding pages, we must not quit the subject of Tinterne Abbey, without selecting a few stanzas from those minstrels who have sought and found inspiration on the spot. Wordsworth, from whose poem on the Wye we have already quoted, addresses the following
Lines to a Cistercian Monastery.
‘Here man more purely lives, less oft doth fall, More promptly rises, walks with nicer heed, More safely rests, dies happier; is freed Earlier from cleansing fires, and gains withal A brighter crown.’ On yon Cistercian wall _That_ confident assurance may be read; And, to like shelter, from the world have fled Increasing multitudes. The potent call Doubtless shall cheat full oft the heart’s desire; Yet, while the rugged age on pliant knee Vows to rapt Fancy humble fealty, A gentler life spreads round the holy spires; Where’er they rise the sylvan waste retires, And aëry harvests crown the fertile lea.
Tinterne Abbey on the Wye.
Sudden the change; at once to tread The grass-grown mansions of the dead. Awful to feeling, where, immense, Rose ruin’d grey magnificence; The fair wrought shaft all ivy-bound, The tow’ring arch with foliage crowned, That trembles on its brow sublime, Triumphant o’er the spoils of time. There, grasping all the eye beheld, Thought into mingling anguish swell’d, And checked the wild excursive wing, O’er dust or bones of priest or king; Or rais’d some Strongbow warrior’s ghost, To shout before his banner’d host. But all was still. The chequered floor Shall echo to the step no more; No airy roof the strain prolong, Of vesper chant or choral song-- Tinterne ! thy name shall hence sustain A thousand raptures in my brain; Joys, full of soul, all strength, all eye, That cannot fade, that cannot die.--_Bloomfield._
Evening at Tinterne Abbey.
A pilgrim , at the vesper hour, I stood by Tinterne’s hallowed tower; While o’er the walls, in golden hue, The setting sun its farewell threw; Then, paling slowly, flushed and fled, Like a smile from the cheek of the recent dead.
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’Tis night --on the ivy-mantled walls The shadows deepen, and darkness falls; And forth from his roost, in the fretted aisle, The solemn owl wheels round the pile; But no lighted shrine, no vesper-song, Is seen, or heard, these aisles among; For hymnless now the day returns, And voiceless sets on their nameless urns; Nor laud, nor chant, nor matin chime, Retard the fleeting steps of time.
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The Shrine , from which the anthem rushed, When evening glowed, or morning blushed, Like them, who reared the pile on high-- A landmark pointing to the sky; Like them, by slow and sure decay, That shrine is crumbling o’er their clay.--_W.B._, 1848.
The Abbey by Moonlight.
I tread the moonlit abbey ! Oh, my soul, How nobly art thou struggling to be free, Spurning the temple’s, and the world’s control, And feeling most inadequate to thee The loftiest dome, the grandest scenery; O’er views that would oppress thee or appal, Rising, like light bark o’er the mounting sea; And where, if weak or mortal thou wouldst fall, Expanding to survey and compass more than all!
Palace of Piety ! Devotion here Should wear a crownèd angel’s robe of white, And antedate the ardours of a sphere, Where all is tranquil as this noon of night! The moon--the regal moon--intensely bright, Shines through the roseate window of the west; Each shaft, an artificial stalactite Of pendent stone, with slumber seems oppressed, Or with a charmèd dream of peaceful rapture blessed.
And through thy lofty arch, a single star Is gazing from a depth of spotless blue, As if to learn how soft thy splendours are, And feel them deeply, as I fain would do! While now supine upon thy pave of dew I let thy loveliness my soul pervade, And pass with unimpeded influence through Its quiet depths, like moonlight through thy shade, To haunt with beauty still that shrine of hopes decayed.
Forgive me, abbey of the watered vale-- Forgive that, when I feel my spirit swell With an unwonted energy, I fail To hymn thy desolated glories well! Not yet the chrysalis has burst its shell-- Not yet expanded its immortal wings; The restless rudiments of vast powers tell The soul a deathless thing; from earth she springs, But fast and feebly falls, the while of thee she sings. _J. C. Earle, St. Edmund’s Hall, Oxford._
Tinterne Vesper-Hymn.
Like crimson on the dimpled Wye Sleeps the glowing summer sky; O’er the landscape, widely thrown, Belted rock, and mountain cone; Hamlet, tower, and haunted stream, Are basking in the vesper-beam; And holy friars , robed in white, Cross them in the waning light--AVE MARIA!
Now, along the abbey walls, Soft the purple _gloaming_ falls; Aloft, on every turret’s height, In the dim and doubtful light, Here retiring, there advancing, Weeds are waving, wings are glancing, And yon effigies of stone Seem to hail the vesper-tone--AVE MARIA!
Deeper yet, and deeper still, From winding stream, and wooded hill, Shadowy cliff and rippling _weir_, Nature’s music fills the ear; Notes of mingling praise and prayer Float along the solemn air, Where, from cloistered arches dim, Swells the everlasting hymn--AVE MARIA!
Hark, ’tis midnight! but, unsleeping, Here their faithful vigil keeping; Pale white friars raise again, In lengthened chant, the solemn strain! Hark! throughout the sacred dwelling, High the mingled notes are swelling; Angels, stooping from the sky, Bear the sacrifice on high--AVE MARIA!--_W. B._ 1849.
Appendix.
Of the Abbots of Tinterne the historical notices are very scanty. The following occur in the “Parliamentary Writs,” by Sir Francis Palgrave:--[187]
A.D. 1294.-- Abbas de Tynterne is summoned to a council of the clergy, to be held before the King in person, at Westminster, on the Feast of St. Matthias the Apostle, on the twenty-first day of September, and twenty-second of Edward I. Again--
1295.--The Abbas de Tynterne is summoned to Parliament at Westminster, on Sunday next after the feast of St. Martin , thirteenth day of October, and twenty-third year of the reign of Edward I., prorogued to Sunday next, before the Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, the twenty-seventh of November. Thirdly--
1296.--Summoned to Parliament at Bury St. Edmund’s , on the morrow of All-Souls , November the third day, and twenty-fourth year of the reign of Edward I.
1300.-- Abbas de Tynterne --Letter of Credence addressed to him concerning the expedition against the Scots --at Blith, the seventeenth day of January, and twenty-eighth year of the reign of Edward I. Again, the same year, the abbot was summoned to Parliament in London, on the second Sunday in Lent , being the sixth day of March.
1301.-- Abbas de Tynterne is summoned to Parliament at Lincoln --in eight days of St. Hilary --the twentieth day of January, and twenty-eighth year of the reign aforesaid.
1305.--Summoned to Parliament at Westminster, on Tuesday, in fifteen days of the Purification , the sixteenth of February; afterwards prorogued to Sunday next, after the Feast of St. Matthias the Apostle, the twenty-eighth day of February--but to which he was not resummoned--and thirty-third year of the reign of Edward I.
1316.-- Abbas de Tynterne , certified pursuant to writ, tested at Clipston, March the fifth, as one of the lords of the township of Acle ,[188] in the county of Norfolk, in the ninth year of the reign of Edward II.
1316.-- Johannes de Tynterne , certified in like manner, as holding part of the burgh of Lyme-Regis , in the county of Dorset, in the ninth year of the reign of Edward II.
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The following is the original document referred to in various passages of the foregoing articles on Chepstow and Tinterne:--
Genealogia Fundatoris (Ex MS. Codice in Bibl. Cottoniana [sub Effigie Vitellii, F. 4], fol. 7).
Gunnora Comitissa Normanniæ duas habuit sorores, una Turulpho de Ponte-Adamaro conjuncta erat in matrimonio, et procreavit Humfridum de Vetulis qui fuit pater Rogeri de Bellomonte, ex quo comites de Warwike et Leicestriæ processerunt.
Turketillus fuit frater istius Turulphi, cujus filius Hasculfus de Harecurt aliam sororem predictæ Comitissæ Gunnoræ con ... erat duos procreavit filios; scilicet Walterum de Giffard, primogenitum, qui alium Walterum procreavit, et dictus fuit Walterius Giffard secundus. Rohesia, una sororum Walteri (duas plures enim habuit) conjuncta in matrimonio Ricardo filio comitis Gisleberti , qui in re militari, tempore Conquestoris omnes sui temporis magnates præcessit. Prædicta Rohesia supervixit et renupta Eudoni , dapifero Regis Normanniæ qui construxit castrum Colecestriæ, cum cœnobio, in honore Sancti Johannis, ubi sepultus fuit, cum conjuge sua, tempore Henrici primi. Margareta filia eorum nupta fuit Willielmo de Mandevill, et fuit mater Gaufredi filii comitis Essexiæ et jure matris, Normanniæ dapifer. Prædictus Ricardus apud sanctum Neotum jacet sepultus. Huic rex Willielmus concessit baroniam De Clare , villam verò cum castello de Tunbridge, de Archiepiscopo Cantuariensi, pro aliis terris in Normannia, perquisivit in excambium. Baldwinus , frater istius Ricardi, Willielmum, Robertum, et Ricardum, cum tribus sororibus genuit. Ex prædicta Rohesia hanc sobolem procreavit Ricardus, Rogerus natu secundus terras patris sui in Normannia adeptus est; Walterus dominium Wenciæ inferioris, in Wallia, qui construxit Abbatiam de Tinterna, anno Domini MCXXXI; obiit sine prole .[189]
The Deed , by which the privileges originally granted by the founders were confirmed and completed by Roger Bigod, after the lapse of a hundred and seven years, is expressed in the following terms:--
Rogerus le Bygod Comes Norfolciæ , et Mareschallus Angliæ, Salutem in Domino. Noverit universitas vestra me intuitu Dei et pro salute animæ nostræ, et animarum antecessorum nostrorum, et hæredum nostrorum, concessisse et confirmasse Deo et ecclesiæ beatæ Mariæ de Tinterna , Abbati et monachis et eorum successoribus ibidem Deo servientibus, in liberam puram et perpetuam elemosynam, omnes terras et possessiones, libertates, et liberas consuetudines subscriptas quas habent ex donis antecessorum nostrorum et aliorum fundatorum seu donatorum, sive ex dono nostro--videlicet: Totam hayam de Porcassek , et ex altera parte co opertorium nemoris [~c] omnibus pertinentiis suis in bosco et plano, et quicquid habet in Pentirk de tenementis terris redditibus boscis et planis [~c] aliis libertatibus suis et totam terram de Modisgat [~c] omnibus suis pertinentiis--videlicet: cum pastura ovium et aliorum animalium suorum ubique in _chacia_ nostra de Tudenham , et de Subbosco in dictu chacia quicquid eis necessarium fuerit ad ardendum et ad _hayas_ claudendas, etc. His testibus domino Joanne le Bÿgod fratre meo: Dom. Joanne le Bÿgod Stocton : Nicholao de Kingeston , militibus: Elya de Aylbreton, tunc Seneschallo meo de Strugull : Philippe de Mora : Rogero de Sancto Mauro : Willielmo de Dynam : Andreæ de Bellocampo , et aliis.
Datum apud Modesgat , quarto die Augusti, anno Domini M.CCCI.
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AUTHORITIES quoted or referred to in the preceding article on Tinterne Abbey and its vicinity:--Dugdale’s Monasticon and Baronage--Thomas’s Tinterne--Camden--Giraldus Cambrensis--Robert of Gloucester--Matthew Paris--William of Worcester--Fosbroke’s British Monachism--Dallaway’s Arts--Reed--Barber--Mores Catholici--Life of St. Bernard--French Monastic Writers--Annales et Usus Cistercienses--Morton’s Monastic Annals--Nicolson’s History--West’s Furness--Wonders and Traditions of Wales--Bp. Godwin--Burnet--Pictorial Hist. of Engl.--Sir H. Ellis’s Original Letters--Wilkins’s Concilia--Macaulay’s History--Blunt’s Sketch of the Reformation--Latimer’s Sermons--Madden’s Penalties--Warton--Taylor’s Index Monast.--Heraldic Enquiries--Henniker--Cowel--Chronicles of England--Local historians and poets--Gilpin--Heath--Barber--Thomas, whose work on “Tinterne and its Environs” is the best hand-book that has yet appeared on this locality--Notes taken by the Editor during a Tour on the Wye--Hints and Suggestions from Correspondents, etc.
On taking leave of Tinterne, we shall here introduce a short notice of--
Goodrich Castle , once a stronghold of the Marshalls, whose names have been so often recorded in connection with the abbey. It stands on a finely wooded promontory, round which the river Wye flows in a semicircular direction. By whom it was originally founded is unknown, though the near affinity of its name to that of ‘ Godricus Dux ,’ who occurs as a witness to two charters granted by King Canute to the abbey of Hulm , has given birth to a not improbable conjecture that he was the founder. The Keep is evidently of a date antecedent to the Conquest; but the surrounding works are principally Norman, though various additions and alterations may be distinguished as the workmanship of different periods, even down to the time of Henry VI.
In its general outline, this castle forms a parallelogram, with a round tower at each angle, and a square ‘keep’ standing in the south-west part of the enclosed area. The common thickness of the exterior walls is somewhat more than seven feet; the length of the longest sides--that is, those towards the south-east and north-west, including the projections of the towers--is about 176 feet; and that of the south-west and north-east sides about 152 feet.