A BOOK ABOUT CATHEDRALS, ABBEYS, AND CHURCHES.*
A CONSIDERABLE portion of the rich store of information presented to the public in Cathedrals, Abbeys, and Churches of England and Wales can only be done full justice to and appreciated as it deserves by experts in architecture. But there is also much in it which will suit the taste of less highly instructed readers, and will, we think, be enjoyed even by people to whom such technical definitions as Perpendicular, Renaissance, Romanesque, Flamboyant, and Early English have no particular meaning ; and who when beholding a clerestory, chevet, apse, ambulatory, triforium, transept, ambry, chantry, or basilica are as all unconscious of the proper designation of what they see as was Monsieur Jourdain of the fact that he spoke prose. Old ecclesiastical buildings help to set forth in tangible form both the faith and the history of past ages ; and one hundred and fourteen of these buildings, described in a series of papers by different writers published under the editorship of Dr. Bonney, are comprised in the work now before us, which is profusely illustrated, the fruit of careful research in matters antiquarian as well as architectural, and —save in respect of bulk—would be an invaluable guide- book. As it is, however, since two volumes each weighing nearly 51b., and measuring 11 in. by 9 in., are not exactly adapted to be carried about in a tourist's hand or pocket, the treasures of knowledge and study therein contained must evidently be reserved for home reference, and thus lose the additional charm that would be imparted by perusal when on the spot at the places described.
We subjoin a few examples of the numerous quaint bits of lore that have been unearthed and brought to light by the writers, which will suffice to give some idea of the varied nature of the book's contents, and show our reasons for commending it to the notice of those amongst the general public who may not happen to be architectural connoisseurs.
To hear of an accident in the twelfth century being attributed indifferently to either "the vengeance of God or spite of the devil" gives a ludicrous notion of the vagueness of opinion regarding the victim's moral con- dition that must have prevailed amongst his acquaintances. An inscription to a certain Lady Downe, " which after twenty-seven lines enumerating her perfections, refers the inquiring reader to the Gentleman's Magazine of May, 1812, for further particulars," irresistibly suggests a conjecture that the inscription was, perchance, written by the author of the magazine article in question, who had hit upon this
• Cathedrals, Abbeys, and Churches of England and Wales. Edited by Prof. P. G. Bonney, D.Sc., LL.D., F.S.S. London : Cassell and Co. ingenious method of advertising his performance. Piety and practical exhortation are combined quaintly in the case of a fire-bell (dated 1652) at Dorchester, whereon is written :— " Lord, quench this furious flame !
Arise ! run ! help ! put out the same,"—
and the inscription leaves us decidedly in the dark as to whether the last line is supposed to be addressed to the Almighty, or only to mortals. Beneath a picture at Peter- borough of a sexton who died in 1594 at the age of ninety- eight is recorded :-
" He had interred 2 queens within this place, And this towne's householders in his lives space Twice over,"— the "2 queenes " being Henry VIII.'s wife, Catherine of Arragon, and Mary Queen of Scots. Modern enthusiasts for church restoration would hardly be satisfied with the modest
standard of St. Wilfrid (Archbishop of York from 669 to 709), who, being anxious to restore his church thoroughly, "put on a new roof of lead, placed for the first time glass in the windows so that the birds could no longer fly in and out and defile the sanctuary within, covered the walls with plaster, and decorated the Altar." Skilled artisans working for three- pence a day is a thought that seems likely to tempt the employer of labour to sigh for existence at the end of the thirteenth century, unless, as is possible, his regret may be tempered by the reflection that this would mean also going back to days when ecclesiastical ladies might have power such as that of the (apparently) bloodthirSty Abbess of Romsey, who, in the reign of Henry III., petitioned for and actually obtained royal letters patent for the restitution of the privilege of condemning and hanging, which function of the Abbesses of Romsey had then become obsolete. Undignified as squabbles for precedence are at all times apt to be, they are yet rarely conducted with the utter disregard of decorum shown by early Archbishops of Canterbury and York. For at a Council at Westminster in 1102, Gerard of York, we learn, kicked over the chair prepared for him because it was on a lower level than that put for Anselm of Canterbury ; while at another Council at the same place, Roger of York, on arriving and finding Canterbury occupying the place of honour at the Papal Legate's right hand, pushed in between his rival and
the Legate, and sat upon the former's knee, whence he was forcibly dislodged by the Canterbury faction, who threw bim on the grouni, and so handled him that when at last allowed to rise his cope was torn and himself " covered with dust and shame." Is not easy to deny that the explosion of Royal mirth
which ensued upon Roger's complaint to the King (Henry II.), and appears to have been the affair's finale, was not only excus- able but inevitable. The paper on Abbey Dore, in the Golden Valley, states that " Dwr," the Welsh word for water, is the origin of the valley's name ; and this derivation, though at first sight apparently remote, is seen on examination to be quite the reverse, when one remembers how easily " Dwr " might be changed to " D'or " or " Dore," and thence trans- lated into " Golden."
Before concluding we must mention also another source of attraction to be found in these pages to which no allusion has yet been made,—viz., the brief biographical outlines accom- panying the descriptions of many churches whose interest depends—sometimes partially and sometimes wholly—on their association with some well-known celebrity, as, for instance, the sketch of Bunyan at Elstow, of Chatterton at St. Mary Redcliffe, of Hampden at Great Hampden, of the Lake poets at Grasmere and Crosthwaite, and of Cowper at Olney, &c.
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