Chapter IX: Part 9

In all Norman cathedrals, probably, the choir extended westwards across the transepts into the structural nave. Consequently in any later erection of screens to mark the entrance into the choir, this ancient line of demarcation would be followed. The late Professor Willis remarks of the screen already alluded to at Canterbury, as described by Gervase, “that it may have remained, though in an altered form, to the Reformation. One of Winchelsey’s statutes (dated 1298) expressly commands that the two small doors under the great loft between the body of the church and the choir, which are near the altar under the Great Cross, shall remain.” Thus also at Chichester, Bishop Arundel’s Oratory (which was pulled down in 1859) stood across the western arch of the central tower. At Winchester, the rood-screen was in the second bay of the nave. At St. Albans, St. Cuthbert’s altar-screen is three bays down the nave, and at Norwich Bishop Le Hart’s screen (when complete with a vaulted extension westwards, and a screen still farther, whereon the rood-beam would be placed) takes in three bays of the nave. At Westminster four bays, at Gloucester one bay, were included in the choir: at Peterborough the organ-screen enclosed the first bay of the nave, and there was a second screen as at Norwich, one bay farther west. The choir of the monks at Ely extended westwards beyond the central tower, and after that had fallen, beyond the octagon to the second pier of the nave. At Furness Abbey the pulpitum doubtless occupied a bay between the third pair of piers in the nave. At _Crowland_, as has been stated above, the existing stone screen is across the western side of the lantern. All these, except Chichester, belonged to the Benedictine Order. At Kirkstall Abbey, a Cistercian house, the plan, as it existed in the twelfth century, shows the extension of the choir into two bays of the nave, and at Roche Abbey, also Cistercian, there are traces of the rood-screen, three bays down the nave (with central door and two side altars), no other screen being found save a wooden one in the same line across the north aisle.

In several of the cathedrals on the “old foundation” there is only one screen which—as abroad—has served for rood-screens, the rood either being on or above it. _Lincoln_, York, Ripon, Wells, and Southwell are all furnished with screens of this kind, which have no trace of altars on their western front. I am rather doubtful whether there may not have been altars on each side of the western doorway of the screen at Southwell.

At _Lincoln_ the solid stone screen stretches across the entrance to the choir between the eastern piers of the central crossing, being thus in length about 42 feet and in depth from east to west about 12 feet 6 inches. Its height from the floor of the nave to the top of the parapet is 17 feet. The western front of the screen consists of a central canopied archway having four recessed tabernacles with rich ogee canopied arches, grained continuously on each side, separated by detached buttressed piers. The wall behind is covered with diaper work, and subdivided by a shelf enriched with leafage below. There are still remains of colour and gilding. Three steps lead up to the doorway, from which a passage, with flat ceiling and skeleton vaulting (reminding one of similar work in the screen at Southwell) gives entrance into the choir. On the left, _i.e._ on the north side of this passage, opening by double doors, which have some excellent examples of original ironwork upon them, is a broad staircase leading to the loft above. Just at the entrance to the staircase is the door, on the west side, of a dark recess with an aumbry. The staircase has also a flat ceiling and skeleton rib-vaulting, and has, on emerging above, a corbel table charmingly carved with rich foliage, forming a kind of edge to the hatchway, on three sides. On the south, or right-hand side, of the central passage is a small room, with solid vaulting, lighted by a square window looking into the south choir aisle, guarded by the original iron bars.

On the south side also of the screen, there is a second stair leading to the loft, formed in the thickness of the screen wall of the first bay of the south choir aisle, lighted by a pierced quatrefoil, and approached by a small ogee-headed archway, to be reached by a short step-ladder. This, it has been stated, was for the use of the custodian of the choir, and from its smallness could never have been used by priests arrayed in canonicals. The eastern side of the screen is formed by the return stalls, and over the entrance there is a projection of half polygonal shape, and of much the same date as the choir-stalls themselves. It is noteworthy that the eastern doorway in the stone screen has a deep moulding running round the arch, with traces of colour as a finishing touch, evidently intended to be seen, before the woodwork of the stalls was placed in front of it. I may here mention that the date of the stone screen has been generally considered to be about 1320, and that of John of Welbourn’s choir-stalls about 1380. This projection is coved, and some of the ribs run down to the doorway, but it is curiously and mainly supported by horizontal beams running westward from the projection for half their length over the floor of the loft, and being bolted through that floor at their western ends. Four uprights pass downwards from the floor of the projection, two of them to the floor of the choir, which two are stopped by responds at each side of the stone archway. On reaching the loft, there is a broad seat of stone extending the whole length of the loft on the western side, above that a broad band of elegant diaper-work, surmounted by a parapet pierced with trefoils alternately erect and inverted, and finished with a battlemented cresting.

The eastern face of the screen is guarded by a coped wall of about the same height as that just mentioned, _i.e._ about 4 feet. In the middle, for about 8 feet, this wall is cut away down to the level of the floor of the projection over the eastern doorway, in order to give access to that floor. As already mentioned, the joists of this floor (the floor-boarding probably only dates from 1826) lead backwards, _i.e._ westwards, over a beam laid in the wall north and south, and in their completed state would form a half octagonal platform. On each side of the break in the parapet wall were found, in the course of the alterations in the organ and organ case (in 1897-98), three stone steps. They are broken across, and removed towards the middle of the space, but they have evidently formed part of a half octagon, as the stone floor of the loft within this mark, made by completing the figure, is of a different colour to that outside. These steps, then, have obviously led up to the complete polygon, half within the projection and half westwards of it, over the floor of the loft. These fragmentary steps were noticed to have been much worn with use. The interior of the projection, apparently, is original work, and it is interesting to find in Wild’s plate, published in 1819 before the changes in the organ, that it is boarded round and finished with a plain moulding. J. J. Smith, the late clerk of the works at the Minster, was satisfied that there was a desk running round the inside of this projection.

Canon Christopher Wordsworth, in the Introduction to the second part of the _Lincoln Cathedral Statutes_, says that there was a rood altar (Sanctæ Crucis) under the lantern, either on the screen over the door, or before the entrance of the choir. He also adds, “there was, _circa_ 1520-1536, a ‘Jhesus Mass,’ but whether this involved a special Jesus altar I cannot say.” And again, “Holy Rood or altar of St. Cross, which may have stood on the choir-screen.” An altar with this title appears to have existed in the time of Matthew Paris, _circa_ 1250, as he says that Remigius was buried in front of it; “in prospectu altaris Sanctæ Crucis” are Giraldus Cambrensis’ own words. Therefore, as the Minster was partly used as the Parish Church of St. Mary Magdalene, on whose site it was built, and a presbyter was deputed by the Dean and Chapter to minister sacraments and sacramentals to the parishioners, “in certo loco ipsius ecclesiæ Cathedralis,” till Oliver Sutton erected the church on its present site in Exchequer Gate, it is probable that there was a Jesus altar for parochial purposes and a rood-screen across the western piers of the lantern, or even farther west in the nave. In this connection, the description of the rood-screen at the entrance to the choir given in the _Metrical Life of St. Hugh_, will be of much interest. It was almost certainly written between the years 1220 and 1235:—

“_De crucifixo, et tabulâ aureâ in introitu chori._

Introitumque chori majestas aurea pingit;
Et proprie propriâ crucifixus imagine Christi
Exprimitur, vitæque suæ progressus ad unguem
Insinuatur ibi. Nec solum crux vel imago
Immo columnarum sex, lignorumque duorum
Ampla superficies, obrizo fulgurat auro.”

On which my friend, the late Precentor Venables, remarked, “The meaning is not free from obscurity, but we see that the rood-screen consisted of six pillars—three, we may suppose, either side the entrance to the choir—supporting two beams, on which stood the crucifix, the whole being gilt.”

This, then, may have been the screen on which the rood stood. Abroad, as can be seen at the present day (_e.g._ at Louvain St. Pierre), it frequently stands upon the screen itself. In other cases it may be supported by a beam above the screen. At Canterbury Cathedral, in Lanfranc’s time, we learn from Gervase that “above the loft, and placed across the church, was the beam which sustained the great cross, two cherubim, and the images of St. Mary and St. John the Apostle.” In later times it probably stood on the existing arch (built by Prior Goldstone II. about 1495 to 1517) inserted under the western arch of the central tower. At Exeter Cathedral the rood stood on a separate bar of iron, high above the screen, and was erected in 1324, after the screen was finished. The rests for it, cut out of the narrow arches on either side, were brought into view recently. At Nuremberg the same arrangement prevails, or prevailed. At Winchester Cathedral the second easternmost bay of the nave from the chancel-screen was occupied by a rood-loft, on which stood the “magna crux cum duabus imaginibus sc. Mariæ et Johannis et illas cum trabe vestitas auro et argento copiose,” &c., made and set up by Bishop Stigand, who was buried at Winchester in 1069. At Glastonbury Abbey we read of William de Taunton, Abbot (1322-1335), making the “front of the choir, with the curious stone images, where the crucifix stood.” Also at St. Edmondsbury, in the earliest part of the thirteenth century, Hugh the Sacrist “pulpitum in ecclesiæ ædificavit, magna cruce erecta,” showing the close connection between the rood and the loft. At Worcester Cathedral there are stone brackets for the rood-beam on the western pillars of the lantern, 28 feet from the floor of the nave. There seem to be no traces of rood or rood-beam in _Lincoln Minster_.

In the Hereford Consuetudines, one of the duties of the Thesaurarius was to keep three lamps burning day and night, one of which was “in pulpito ante crucem.” The same officer was ordered in the Liber Niger of _Lincoln_, “Minutam etiam candelam invenire in choro et in pulpito et alibi in ecclesia quandocumque necesse fuerit,” the Eastern use differing from the Western on the score of economy! There seems to be no reasonable doubt that the pulpitum and platform already described was the one from which the Gospel and Epistle were read or intoned, and other portions of the pre-Reformation services sung or said. Dr. Hopkins[102] says: “For the accommodation of the singing monks there was a projecting gallery or pulpit, as it was sometimes termed, standing out from the centre of the east front of the rood-loft, near to the organ.” The author of The Rites of Durham speaks of “the pair of organs over the Quire dore” in the eastern screen. No doubt there were variations in what was read, sung, or chanted from the rood-loft in different dioceses and different cathedrals. According to Wild, at High Mass, as soon as the reading of the Epistle by the sub-deacon was ended (at the altar, we may presume) the deacon, leaving the altar, preceded by the crucifix and taper-bearers, and holding the book of the Gospels conspicuously elevated in his hands, walked slowly and processionally along the south side of the choir (while the choristers sang the _graduale_) to the steps leading to the rood-loft, where, being arrived and kneeling under the great crucifix usually erected there, he addressed the bishop or priest in these words, “Jube, Domine, benedicere,” to which the officiating clergyman answered, “Evangelium Domini Nostri Jesu Christi,” or some other benediction. And then the deacon would read the Gospel from the rood-loft and would return to the altar. From this custom, especially in France, the gallery over the screen obtained the name of Jubé. The Liber Niger, or Statutes of _Lincoln Cathedral_, have the following directions for this use:—

“Vnde incepto _Jube domine benedicere_ none leccionis dabit
ille benediccionem qui propinquior fuerit dignitate. et iste
modus seruetur omni tempore nisi ita sit quod omnes canonici
sint absentes. tunc suus clericus incipiet _Jube_ et cetera et
ipsemet lector dicat benediccionem. Deinde leget” (p. 372).

Also we find the following references to the use of the rood-loft:—

“_Gloria_, ergo incepto; Eat principalis subdiaconus in
pulpitum per dexteram partem chori subdiacono (secundario)
librum portante precedente, Vnde si contingat leccionem aliquam
precedere sicut in natali Domini siue in septimana Pentecostes
iiijᵒʳ temporum; secundus subdiaconus leget, et sacerdos cum
suis ministris dicet _epistolam_. et _Gradale_ et _Alleluia_
et _Sequenciam_ et hijs dictis eat ad suum sedile et ibi dicet
oraciones. Lecta epistola in pulpito recedet subdiaconus
principalis ex sinistra parte chori socio suo prenotato
precedente et librum portante,” &c. (p. 377).

The following passage has against it in the margin:—

“_De modo eundi ad euangelium in magno pulpito._ Et preparent
se omnes ministri altaris ad eundum pro euangelio lecturo
scilicet iij diaconi et iij subdiaconi Principalibus diacono
et subdiacono textus portantibus et ij turiferarij et ij
ceroferarij et ij clerici pueri ferentes cruces et hij omnes
per chorum exeant Set in eundo ad euangelium diaconi ire
debent ex parte dextra chori precedentibus vno turiferario
et ceroferario et vna cruce et subdiaconi ex sinistra
precedentibus vno thuriferario et ceroferario cum cruce, Vnde
incepto evangelio stabunt coram diaconis subdiaconi omnes et
clerici cruces portantes principali subdiacono portante textum
ante pectus Lecto evangelio ibunt ad altare modo contrario quia
diaconi ibunt ex parte sinistra et subdiaconi ex parte dextra.
Vnde semper quando aliquis vel aliqui venient in pulpitum
magnum ad legendum euangelium siue epistolam siue exposicionem;
venient in dextra et recedant in sinistra et dabit sacerdoti
euangelium ad osculandum,” &c. (p. 379).

Again—

“Completorium pulsatur” in a given way. “Vnde sciendum quod
quando iij cantant ad lectrinam in choro siue in magno
pulpito.... Nota quod quandocumque canonicus leget siue cantet
in magno pulpito siue in choro sequetur eum ministrando
vicarius siue clericus in habitu nigro nisi chorus capis
induatur sericis” (p. 382).

Later, _i.e._ in 1236, there are directions for the choir to face the altar whilst the Gospel is being read at the altar, we may presume, for the next sentence runs thus: “Et dum legitur in pulpito debet chorus se convertere ad lectorem euangelij donec euangelium perlegatur.”

There seems to be little doubt that the principal organ (if the church possessed more than one) was frequently placed on the rood-loft, or “pulpitum,” and the smaller one in the choir. There was an organ as late as Hollar’s time over the “Den” in the fourth bay of the north side of the choir at _Lincoln_. By the extracts already quoted from The Rites of Durham, there was evidently one pair of organs (meaning one complete organ) on the north side of the choir, and another pair on the pulpitum there, and from Henry VI.’s “owne avyse” we learn that it was expressly ordered that the Eton College rood-loft should likewise serve as an organ-gallery. Among the many interesting items in the accounts of _Louth_ steeple, dating from 1501-1518, is this:—

“For setting up the Flemish organ in the rood-loft by four days xx_d._”

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.

At _Winthorpe_, for example, there is no trace of a loft on the existing screen, while some four feet or so westwards are putlog holes and corbels for the front of the rood-loft, as well as a complete rood-loft staircase on the north side of the chancel. _Grainsby_, _Friskney_, and _Leverton_ are instances of similar treatment. The explanation is that the rood-loft has been made on the same plan as that at Upper Sheringham in Norfolk. Here a screen of the square-headed kind described, and with good Perpendicular tracery, fills the chancel arch to about the height of ten feet. Four or five feet westwards of this screen extends the rood-loft, not supported apparently by the screen, but just touching it. Two uprights support the front of the loft, with the spandrils filled on the north side with a pelican, on the south with a dragon. The gallery, which has an elegant open traceried front, runs across in front of the chancel arch and is reached by a staircase in the north wall. Much the same arrangement has been at East Budleigh. A feature of minor interest in Sheringham is the diversity of tracery; thus in the rood-loft seven and a half bays have the same, while three more are quite different, and in the screen the number of differences is still more marked.

There are also some screens which show no trace on their westward face of a rood-loft, and yet have or have had one. Of these, Worstead may stand for an example.

Again, occasionally a screen is found, certainly old, certainly in its original position, and yet with no signs on it or in the church of any rood-loft at all. It is fair to suppose in these cases that there never has been a rood-loft, but that the screen itself has carried the rood. Such a screen was the one at _Salmonby_, now removed, and the existing elegant Perpendicular ones at _Wickenby_ and _Scrivelsby_. At West Tarring and Broadwater (Sussex) the low screens bristle with spikes, probably contemporaneous, which show that there never was any upper tracery or loft. Also we can have a rood-loft alone, without a screen, as seems to have been the case at Avebury (Wilts). A superb example of this kind abroad still exists in the Church of St. Etienne du Mont, Paris, of sixteenth-century date, with two spiral staircases.

To return to the rood-loft staircases, which, and the doorways to them, are met with constantly, over one hundred instances being found in _Lincolnshire_ alone. Usually, of course, they cut through more ancient work, as at _Stow_, where a Saxon pier has been cut through (the Saxon piers of the eastern tower arch are likewise cut and channelled to allow of the insertion of the beams of a rood-loft); at _Normanton_, where a Transitional arch has been cut into; at _Frieston_, where the third pier from the west of the Norman north arcade of the nave has been replaced by a square mass of stonework containing the rood-loft stairs, with a Perpendicular rebate for the parish rood-screen; or as at _Whaplode_, where the fine Norman chancel arch has been cut across for the rood-loft, to which a Tudor staircase gave access.

It will have appeared from the quotations already given that at Canterbury, Winchester, and Beverley there were rood-lofts (_pulpita_) as early as the eleventh century. At Peterborough Cathedral, too, we learn that there was a new rood-loft set up by Abbot Benedict before 1193. At _Sibsey_ (St. Margaret’s) there is a Norman nave and aisle arcades, with lofty circular pillars, square abaci and scalloped cushioned capitals. The easternmost arch of the south arcade is narrower than the others, to admit of a turret staircase formerly giving access to the rood-loft, and its respond has some later detail than the others. The rood-loft doorway at _Colsterworth_ is among the earliest known. It has an abacus on which the nail-head ornament exists. This was probably the original rood-loft entrance, which was subsequently altered when the Perpendicular chancel arch was erected, as this must have partly blocked up the entrance. The builders therefore destroyed the right side of the original doorway and made a side entrance. At East Shefford Church (Berks), in the north wall, are two Early English windows for lighting the rood-loft, the entrance to the staircase for which still remains. At St. Nicholas, _Skirbeck_, the nave is of Early English date, and in consequence of the rood-loft staircase, the north arcade has narrower bays than the southern. At _Bratoft_, the aisle arcade, of Decorated date, has the easternmost arch much narrower than any of the others to allow of the rood-loft staircase. The little staircase at _Cotes_ is in the thickness of the south wall. The entrance doorway is moulded in wood, and near the top a tiny two-light window, cut in alabaster, lights the stair. At _St. Lawrence_, _Sedgebrook_, the rood-loft apparently was carried across the aisles, as was the case at _Corby_ and _Carlton Scroop_ (and at _Grantham_); and access to it was supplied by a newel staircase on the south side of the church in a turret, in which a sancte-bell formerly hung. This arrangement of a staircase turret leading on to the nave or aisle roof, and ending in a sancte-bell cot, was obviously convenient, and is not very infrequent. Probably this was the case at _Grantham_, where the octagonal turrets finish in a spirelet, at _Leake_, at _Fishtoft_, at _Swineshead_, at _Langtoft_, at _Helpringham_, _Quadring_, and at _Tattershall_, though in the last-named the turret-stair begins from the stone rood-loft. Leverington Church (Cambs) has a rood-loft turret crowned with a spirelet at the south-east angle of the nave, which forms a sancte-bell cot and still retains its bell. At _Sleaford_ there are two rood-loft stairs in the north and south piers of the chancel arch, and running up with the northern one is a separate staircase leading on to the aisle roof. No rood-loft turrets, as far as I have been able to ascertain, date back previous to the thirteenth century. Curiously, at St. Antony in Kirrier, Cornwall, there is only an _external_ doorway to the rood-loft staircase.

Another convenient position for the sancte-bell cot was at the apex of the eastern gable of the nave, and the earliest example of this form seems to be a Norman one at Bledington Church in Gloucestershire. In _Tallington Church_ there still hangs a bell (probably original) in this position; and Seamer Church, near Scarborough, still possesses both bell and gable sancte-bell cot. At _Welbourn_ is a pretty hanging bell cot corbelled out beneath an excellent gable cross. _Tydd St. Mary’s_ is another instance of both features, while _Gedney_, _Claypole_, _Winthorpe_, _Boston_, _Aslackby_, _Sibsey_, and _Spalding_ have the gable bell cot alone. _Butterwick_ has a gable bell cot as well as a rood-loft turret (of good circular brickwork), as have also _Benington_ and _Wrangle_. _Holbeach_ has had two gable sancte-bell cots, the first dating from 1453; this was replaced at a remarkably late date—that of the Laudian revival, I suppose, in 1629. As well as the sancte-bells which have been already mentioned, at _Aslackby_ is a small bell (unhung in the tower), dated 1611, which is thought to be the sanctus-bell. _St. Mary’s, Sutterton_, is a small bell of thirteenth-century date, inscribed in Lombardic lettering, “Symon de Hotfelde me fecit.” _St. Peter and St. Paul, Algarkirk_, has also probably a sancte-bell, as well as _Bicker_, _Ingoldmells_, _East Halton_, _Sutterton_, _Hacconby_, _Great Hale_, and _North Witham_.

To return to the rood-loft: on it (or above it) would stand the great rood, often with the ends of the cross finished with heads or emblems of the Four Evangelists. Occasionally the crucifix would be sustained partly by chains from the roof, as can be seen abroad—_e.g._ at Louvain—to this day. In the crown of the chancel arch of _Boston Parish Church_ are the sockets for the two chains to support the rood, and at _Billinghay_ a central mark for a hook. On either side of the rood would be an image of St. Mary the Virgin and St. John the Evangelist.[106]

Not infrequently the whole of the chancel arch was boarded up, and the rood, with attendant figures, stood in front of this, or were painted on it. Just above and behind (_i.e._ eastwards of) the rood-loft at _Cotes_ the chancel roof is shut off by oak boarding. On each side figures can be dimly discerned, that on the north having a nimbus, and scattered over the boarding are flowers with leaves, most probably meant for lilies. There is a large blank space in the middle, against which, no doubt, the crucifix was fastened. And it is interesting to note that at “Thorpe in parochie de Heythar” (_Culverthorpe_, near _Haydor_, probably), in April 1555, the churchwardens state: “Itm̅ we had noe Roode nor other Imageis but that were painted on the wall, and thei are defaced and put oute,” &c.[107] Besides the rood and the images of St. Mary and St. John, which are mentioned in almost every one of the 200 parishes in Mr. Peacock’s book as having been destroyed in 1566, often as “the Rode Marie and John with all other Imageis of papistrie,” there are specific references in several cases to other images and tabernacles on the rood-loft. Their fate seemed to be almost invariably to be burnt. Thus at “_Asbye juxa Sleford_—Imprimis o̅r Images of the Rood Mary and Jhon w̅th all other Images burned Ao̅ iijᵒ Elizabeth.” At _Belton_, in _Axholme_ (after mentioning the rood Mary and John), “Itm̅ one Rood-loft with a tabernacle whearin Imageis stood;” at _Folkingham_, “The Images belonging to the same roode-loft as the Image called the roode Marie and John w̅th an other other (_sic_) Image called St. Andrewe (vppon the w̅ch the parish church of ffolkinghm̅ drewe his name).” At _Corbie_, besides the customary three, there was “the Image of St. Johnne the Evang ... of the churche.” At _Gretford_, again, “roode w̅t marie and Johne and the Image of saincte martine the Patrone.” At _Kelby_, a “picture of St. Peter” occurs in the same connection. At _North Witham_, after mentioning the “roode Marie and Johnne,” there are also specified “iij Images of ye rood-lofte.” It will be noted that some of these extra figures are of the patron saints of the various churches. In the rood-loft staircase of _Anwick Church_ was found a statue of the Virgin and Child, with traces of colour on it.

All wooden screens (and probably all the stone ones also) were almost certainly coloured and gilt. The receding parts, or cavettos, of the mouldings are darkened with red or blue, the more prominent white, with often a small diaper. Round mouldings have spiral or wavy lines to show that the feature was circular. The most prominent parts were gilt, as were carved capitals. Gold, too, was often used as star or diaper on a blue or red ground. The mouldings are sometimes all blue and green, while the hollows are red foliage gilt on red ground, with all recessed parts red. A will leaving money to gilding the trelyse has already been given; Sir Richard Bozon, who died 25th March 1524, bequeathed 20s. towards the gilding of the rood-loft at _All Saints’, arrowby_. Thus, on _Lincoln Minster_ screen can still be seen traces of colour, and a little scarlet blue and gold on cavettos and on crockets on that at _Saltfleetby All Saints’_. At _South Somercotes_ the round mouldings are in spirals and black and gold, the spandrils of the panelling white or gold, alternate cavettos green and red, crockets gilt. In the portions of the screen at _Billinghay_ the Tudor roses in the spandrils are coloured red and blue. At _Addlethorpe_ the cavettos are red, finials and crockets gilt (in the north chantry chapel screen the cavettos are red and blue). At _Croft_ the border of the panels is spirally in blue and gold, and the square flowers along the top are gilt. At _Crowland_ the pillars of the uprights are spirally black and white, the ogees ending in finials gilt, and the cusping of the lower panels also gilt. In the beautiful screen at _Alford_ the cavettos are red, and the leaves in the spandril gilt.