Parochiale Anglicanum
Collins Guide to English Parish Churches. Edited with an introduction by John Betjeman. (Collins, 30s.)
MR. BETJEMAN is the true amateur, the opposite of the dilettante, and in this book he is at his eighteenth-century best. He takes us into 4,000 of England's 16,000 established parish churches and chapels of ease, whereof two-thirds are over a century old. He imparts his infectious enthusiasms with style and verve, with much learning lightly borne, and with such historical empathy as to.. make us slip back into ages of earlier English zeal. Mr. John Piper accompanied him with prac- tised point and quill—and lens, while Edwin Smith, that master of camera, and others provided most of the lovely plates. Mr. Betjeman himself gives us a consummate introduction combining artistic lore with doctrinal, ritual, and even theolo- gical understanding, so that one might say these dry stones live and these grey walls glow again with their old colours. Then come the geographical divi- sions of the country and of this book : each sector, .carefully explored, yields its due quota of churches of all ages, under the expert guidance of editor and geographical contributor. Among them are such authorities as Clive Rouse, Bryan Little, W. G. Hoskins and Randall Blacking. The editor hand-
somely acknowledges indebtedness to Dr. Pevsner as well as many others, but he takes his own line whenever he feels it is warranted; and a good line it always is, perhaps best for us when it startles most. The notes for each church in each section mention exactly what we need to know : dedication if any, age, restorer, inner and outer works of art, history, materials, etc., as well as hints for the best views, how to get there and other desiderata often overlooked. There are a fine and full glossary with diagrams, index of architects and artists and index of places. Editors and authors have worked in a fraternal harmony of endeavour. Even their styles approxi- mate. Under Cumberland, Frank Singleton writes of Isel : 'All around stretches a lost landscape
of pasture and river: 0 fortunatos nimium . !' and under Kirkoswald : 'Like all churches dedi- cated to St. Oswald this one is associated with a spring, but it is almost certainly the only one in which a pure spring of water issues from the conical hill at the foot of which the church stands, flows under the length of the nave and issues as a drinking well outside the W. wall.' That is vintage Betjeman, too. This is so lovely and useful a book that idiosyncratic criticisms here and there would seem petty. I know no better thirty bobs' worth in the book trade, no better
Previous page
