Chapter XVI: Queenborough Castle and Its Builder, William of Wykeham 269 (6)

Upon this base a light stone or brick lantern was raised, which in England was generally octagonal in form, but in Ireland invariably square, the additional number of worked quoin stones required for the former plan being probably the reason for its rejection in the poorer country. Occasionally the tower was finished with a stone spire, but as a rule any addition in that direction was of timber only. A good example, however, occurs at Coventry in the central tower of the Franciscan Church (the sole remnant of that house), and as now incorporated in the modern Christ Church, it forms one of the trio of spires for which the City of Coventry is famous. The Grey Friars’ tower at Lynn Regis, Norfolk, is again the sole remnant of the convent of which it formed a part, and is a brick and stone building of Perpendicular date, octagonal, and finished with a battlemented parapet. This town is also singular in having formerly possessed two parish churches, with octagonal central towers. Now, though octagonal upper stages are comparatively common, especially in the eastern counties, instances of the whole tower of this shape are very rare; and since the Lynn examples were probably copied from one or other of the four friaries of the town, it is not extravagant to surmise that it was the mendicants who first introduced the octagonal form into England. At Richmond, Yorkshire, stands the only other friars’ tower which has survived; this, however, is of a more ordinary type. It is a beautifully proportioned square structure, with belfry windows, and a pierced parapet of Perpendicular work, and was evidently only just completed at the Reformation, when the whole church was in course of reconstruction.

Dunbar contains the only example of a typical friars’ steeple in Scotland, the Carmelite tower of South Street, Queensferry, being of the more ordinary type; but in Ireland a remarkable series is still standing, including among its numbers the celebrated ruins of Quinn, Ennis, Clare, Galway, Rosserk, Drogheda, and Athenry.

The space beneath the tower was commonly continued in the form of a passage right across the church, and served as the chief means of communication between the cloister and the outside world.

Turning now to the choir of the friars’ churches: they were usually aisleless parallelograms, and almost always square ended. Their chief feature will be found to be the magnificent proportions of the windows. The choir of the Dominicans at Norwich has a magnificent Decorated east window of seven lights; the Franciscans of Chichester another, with five graduated lancets under one hood; and even a small house like the Austin Friars at Rye had an east window (now built up) of imposing dimensions.

The apsidal termination usual on the Continent has one example in this country in the Grey Friars at Winchelsea, a fourteenth-century structure, and a very graceful example of Decorated work. A wide chancel arch, with banded sideshafts, opened from the nave (which has now gone), into the choir of four bays, with a three-sided apse, each face of which is pierced with a tall Decorated window. A Scotch example of very similar type exists in the Dominicans at St. Andrews, but in this instance the apse belonged to a side chapel and is much smaller in all its dimensions. The stone vault remains in part, and, like its Sussex counterpart, it is the sole remaining fragment of the church. In both these instances the use of the apsidal end may be ascribed to French influence, which was particularly strong in the Cinque Ports at this time, owing to the French wars of Edward III.

Adjoining the church, in some instances, lay an open yard provided with an outside pulpit either for overflow meetings or for more general use in the heat of the summer. The space outside the Dominican Church at Norwich was long known as the “Preaching Yard,” and the beautiful octagonal stone pulpit cross formerly outside the west front of the church of the same order at Hereford remains intact. It is, now, perhaps, the only remaining example of such a structure in England—an existing counterpart to the rich cross “y-tight with tabernacles” of Pierce Ploughman’s Creed.

Two unusual features distinguish the planning of the domestic buildings of a friary—the first an emphasis upon the secular nature of most of the church, the second the result of a necessity for economy.

The cloister of a friary was placed without any general rule, but most generally it partly adjoined the nave with a portion overlapping the choir, and when the whole or any part adjoined the nave it was not unusual to introduce a narrow open court between the church wall and the cloister walk. The Cistercians had a somewhat similar arrangement in the “lane” which, in many of their houses, separated the buildings of the monks from those of the “conversi,” and, in the case of the mendicant orders the court served to separate the domestic portion of the house from their public preaching-place. In England this feature, which occurs in the Black Friars at Norwich, the Franciscan houses at London and Cardiff and elsewhere, is almost confined to the mendicant orders, the only other existing example outside their ranks being the secular cathedral of Salisbury, and here, as in the friars’ houses, a short corridor communicates between the cloister and the church.

The second noticeable feature in the planning of the domestic buildings is found in the general practice of building the first-floor apartments over one, two, or more walks of the cloister, effecting by this means an economy both in wall masonry and in the flat lead roofing of the cloister alleys. Examples of this treatment are very numerous, and occur in all parts of the country. Thus, at Hulne, Northumberland, two alleys were built over—the east and west. At Norwich Black Friars and Dunwich Grey Friars one or more walks are similarly treated, while the Walsingham Franciscans apparently built their frater half over the south walk of the great cloister and half over the north walk of the little cloister. That lack of funds was the chief cause of this somewhat niggardly arrangement is rendered more certain by the fact that the only other order in which it occurs—the Gilbertine—was the most poorly endowed of all the older communities.

Turning now from the subject of the actual structure and arrangement of the friars’ houses the larger question arises: What influence, if any, had all this mass of building upon the outside world, and upon the architecture practised among the people at large? It may be safely postulated at the outset that the influence exercised by the friars will be found, firstly and most definitely, in the structure of the parish church and, in its earliest manifestations, in the parish church of _the towns_, for not only were they the nearest ecclesiastical neighbours, but the objects served by each class of buildings were, within certain limits, identical.

The great towns of England during the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries were split up into a very large number of parishes, each with its church, and as the town enlarged its borders or multiplied its population, additional churches were built to supply its increased needs. London, even in the time of Fitzstephen (_temp._ Henry II.), had 120 parish churches; Norwich, at a little later date, had over forty; Lincoln twenty or more; Winchester a dozen; and a small town like St. Albans five. The practice was evidently at this period to meet the demand for increased accommodation, _not_ by enlarging existing churches but by building new ones. The average town church of the Norman period was, comparatively speaking, of small dimensions and limited accommodation, and in London, with hardly an exception, they remained to the end architecturally insignificant, solely because their numbers were such as to meet all possible demands that could be made upon them.

_Drawn by A. W. Clapham._]

The period of the greatest architectural activity of the friars may be dated to the last quarter of the thirteenth and the first quarter of the fourteenth centuries, or, roughly, to the reigns of the first two Edwards, and by about the middle of this period they had evolved a type of church which for its purpose was as nearly perfect as experience and experiment could make it. The comfort of the largest congregation was secured by an ample floor-space, while the heavy piers of the older buildings had given way to the lofty and slender columns of the Austin Friars at London, only just large enough for structural stability and leaving an almost uninterrupted view of the preacher from all parts of the church.

The culmination and final expression of their views of what a congregational church should be took form in the great Franciscan church begun in Newgate Street, London, in 1306, and probably the largest friars’ church in England. This building, with its 300 ft. of length, its slender piers, its long range of clerestory, aisle, and end windows, is a type which is without a parallel of its own date and outside its own order as the expression of a new and original idea in church building, departing equally from the insignificant dimensions of the contemporary parish church and the massive and cavernous construction of the monastic nave.

It is at this precise point that a radical alteration is observable in the planning of the parish church, an alteration which, in view of its ultimate results, was almost revolutionary.

The old idea of the multiplication of the small town churches is suddenly and for no apparent reason abandoned, and the single church of huge dimensions takes its place. It is not asserted that, previous to this date, there were no large buildings of this class, but such as already existed were almost entirely in country districts, and with their cruciform shape and central tower they were evidently inspired by the monastic churches of the older orders.

An examination of the plan of one of the towns which rose into prominence in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries will reveal a remarkable and striking contrast when compared with that of one of the older towns. In the former case one or two parishes embrace the whole city, while in the latter it is subdivided into ten, twenty, thirty, or more, and while _the one_ has perhaps a single parish fane which dominates the town, _the other_ has towers and spires rising on every hand.

The outset of the new regime may perhaps be definitely dated to the foundation by Edward I. of several new towns, of which Hull in the north, and Winchelsea in the south, are the best-known examples, and in each of these places a single great church is deemed sufficient for the needs of the whole town.

It would be easy to multiply examples. The great port of Boston or the trading centre of Newark, whose prosperity dates from the fourteenth century, each built for themselves a single church on an almost cathedral scale, and in the same sequence are ranged most of the great churches of East Anglia.

The new type of church is one having the great open nave, the long ranges of windows, and the slender piers which became so general in the Perpendicular period. They are, in fact, copies of the great friars’ churches which immediately preceded them. The friars originated and perfected the type which in the fulness of time was accepted and adopted by the parish church builder as the best and most suitable structure for his purpose which had yet been evolved.

The church of the Holy Trinity, Hull, the forerunner of the new movement, provides an additional element of probability to the theory. Founded by Edward I., and built under the auspices of his son, it had in both its royal parents a close relationship to the great Franciscan church of London, erected through the bounty of the wife of the one and the step-mother of the other, and it is not improbable that the personal element was brought to bear on the design of the later building with far-reaching results.

Once the new idea had taken root under royal patronage it rapidly spread over England, and in the next century some even of the old town churches were rebuilt in the then prevailing style, and it is perhaps not too much to say that the great Perpendicular parish church, of which there are so many noble examples, is the direct outcome and lineal descendant of the friars’ buildings, which have unfortunately so nearly disappeared.

_Plan by A. W. Clapham._]

BLACKFRIARS, LONDON.

Blackfriars to the modern Londoner is as familiar a title as that of any part in the City, and to all frequenters of Fleet Street the district of Whitefriars must be little less familiar. Yet the homes of the Dominicans and the Carmelites, their churches and the numerous buildings within their precincts, have disappeared so completely that it is doubtful if the majority of people who daily use their names have any intelligent idea of the origin of the terms. And even for those who have given thought to the subject there has been no definite description of the buildings such as would enable them to reconstruct in their minds the great monastic establishments of the two orders. It is possible, however, from various sources to draw out with tolerable accuracy the plans of the houses of the Blackfriars and the Whitefriars and to ascertain the accurate position of all their principal apartments. The arrangements of the Blackfriars has an additional interest in that the Guest House is still exactly defined by the Hall of the Apothecaries’ Company, and the Upper Frater which lay across the entrance to Printing House Square served not only as the Parliament House in the reign of Henry VIII. but was later converted into the celebrated Blackfriars Theatre.

The priory of the Dominican or Black Friars in London was founded in 1221 on a site to the south of Holborn and east of Chancery Lane. In 1274, however, a new site was given them on the north bank of the Thames, just east of the Fleet ditch. This necessitated the pulling down of that part of the city wall south of Ludgate, and a new wall was built running eastwards from the gate and turning south to the river within the Fleet. It appears that the church was not begun until 1279.

Although there is little documentary information regarding the buildings before the Dissolution, it is some evidence of their importance that the meetings of Privy Councils were held here during the first part of Henry VI.’s reign, and that three Parliaments met here in 1450, 1523–4, and 1529. The Emperor Charles V. lodged in the Guest House in 1522, and a gallery was built by Henry VIII. to connect his apartments with Bridewell Palace, where his train was accommodated. In 1529 the King’s divorce from Catherine of Arragon was tried in the “Parliament Chamber,” Henry VIII. and his queen being in residence in Bridewell.

In an anonymous fourteenth-century Wickliffite lampoon upon the friars, entitled _Pierce the Ploughman’s Creed_, there is a long passage which refers almost certainly to the London house of the Blackfriars, since, whenever the details can be tested, they are found to be accurate. As the lines are not only of peculiar interest from their remarkably vivid description of a great friary in its architectural prime, but also from their containing the most graphic purely architectural description in the whole range of English mediæval literature, a free rendering of them is quoted below:—

Then thought I to question the first of these four orders,
And pressed to the Preachers to make proof of their will;
I hied to their house to learn more about them,
And when I came to their Court I gazed all about.
Such a boldly built pile on earthly heights
Certain, I have not seen for a long time.
I thought on that house and long thereon looked,
How the pillars were painted and finely adorned
And quaintly were carven with curious knots,
With windows well wrought, lofty and wide.
Then entered I in and went all about,
And everywhere there were walls around the dwelling
With posterns for passing privately whenever they list,
Orchards and arbours arranged with neatness,
And a curious cross craftily constructed
With tabernacles encircled facing all sides—
The price of a ploughland in pennies so round
To adorn that pillar were little indeed.
Then I gat me forth to look at the Church,
And found it well and wonderfully built,
With arches on each side, embellished and carven
With crockets on their angles and knots of gold.
The wide windows all wrought with numberless writings
Shining with shapely shields to make a display,
With merchants’ marks all figured between,
To the number of more than twice two and twenty
(There is no herald that hath half such a roll),
And newly set out as if by a Ragman.
Tombs upon tabernacles raised up aloft,
Railed in with iron, with many an effigy
In armour, of alabaster, seemingly clad;
Laid upon marble in divers manners,
Were knights now clothed in their martial dress—
All, it seemed, saints who were sacred on earth!—
And lovely carved ladies lay by their sides
In many gay garments that were beaten gold;
Though the taxes of ten years were truly gathered
It could not make half that church, I trow.
Then came I to the Cloister and gazed about
How it was pillared and painted and carved so well,
All roofed with lead low on the stones
And paved with painted tiles, one after another,
With conduits of clean tin, closed all about,
Washing basins wrought of shining latten;
I trow the price of the ground in a great shire
Would not apparel that place from beginning to end.
Then was the Chapter House wrought like a great church,
Carven and roofed and curiously constructed,
With a beautiful ceiling set up aloft,
Like a Parliament-house all painted about.
Then fared I to the Frater and found there again
A hall for a great king, to hold his household,
With broad tables and benches beautifully furnished,
And windows of glass, wrought like a church.
Then walked I further and went all about,
And saw halls full high and houses full noble,
Chambers with chimneys, and chapels gay,
And kitchens such as kings may have in castles,
And the Dorter furnished with strong doors;
Farmery and frater with many more houses,
All of strong stone walls raised up on high
With garrets, great and gay, and every window glazed;
And other houses now in which to lodge the queen,
And yet these builders will beg a bag full of wheat
Of a poor man that may, for once, pay
Half his rent in a year and half be behind.

Apart from the general description contained in these lines, the sources of our information regarding the buildings of the Blackfriars date from after the Dissolution and are contained in certain grants of property, and some surveys of the time of Edward VI., the latter preserved at Loseley, near Guildford. From these it is possible to reconstruct the greater part of the Friary, an outline of which is given below.

The position of the Church is determined by the Cloister, the east walk of which is now marked by the passage called Church Entry, and its western range of buildings by the Apothecaries’ Hall. The name “Church Entry” points fairly conclusively to the usual passage between the nave and chancel—passing north and south beneath the steeple—that has been already referred to as characteristic of the friars’ plans. The nave with its two aisles measured some 114 feet by 60 feet internally, and alongside its northern aisle at the west end was the Lady Chapel, which increased the width of the west front to 90 feet externally. There is a record of this chapel as early as 1437; but from the will of Robert Castell we gather that it had been rebuilt by Lady Ingoldsthorpe, who died in 1494, sister of John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester (“the Butcher”), who was executed in 1470. The occasion of the rebuilding may have been the interment of his body, and beside him was later buried the headless body of James Touchet, Lord Audley, who suffered death at the hands of the executioner in 1497.

The steeple between the nave and choir, called in the grant to Sir Thomas Cawarden (1550) “the Campanile,” is shown in the view of London by Van der Wyngaerde. Polygonal in form, and with pinnacled parapet and spire, it obviously followed the same model as those still to be seen at Coventry and Lynn.

The choir, in all probability aisleless, measured 90 feet from east to west, making six bays. The great cloister (110 feet square) lay to the south of the Church, and, unlike the general practice among the friars, its walks were roofed and not built over. The description in _Pierce the Ploughman’s Creed_ is borne out by the surveys at Loseley, and there is little doubt that the poet’s admiration was well founded. Some curious particulars of burials in the cloister are preserved. In the will of Sir Robert Southwell, Knight, dated 1514, is a desire to be buried “in the Cloister of the Friars Preachers in the city of London, under or near the Lavatory there nigh to the picture of the holy Crucifix there set.” In his further directions he says: “I will that that friar of the same place, appointed daily for the work to say there the mass of the Trinity, by the space of xx years next after my decease say every day a special collect in his mass for my soul, also de profundis with a pater and ave and crede for my said soul ... at the said lavatory immediately when the convent of the same place or the most part of them shall go to dinner. Item I will that that friar being a priest that first happen to come any day during the said xx years, in the morning first to the said lavatory to wash his hands and then and there to say de profundis for the souls before said, have for his so doing 1d.” Besides this, he desires the prior and sub-prior to say “God have mercy on my soul every day after dinner,” and awards them 13s. 4d. a year for the purpose.

Another curious legacy is that of William Stalworth, a citizen and merchant-tailor, who was also buried in the Cloister, and in his will, dated 1519, says: “I will that there shall be distributed to the Friars Preachers every Lent for ten years a barrel of white herrings, and to the young friars of the same house for the same time a frayle of fygges.”

The extensive buildings of the Friary lay round the Great Cloister, and considerably to the south and east. The Chapter House stood in the centre of the eastern range, and over its vestibule and various rooms on the ground floor stretched the dorter (or dormitory), which is described as having a stairway down into the Church. Behind the northern part of the dorter was the Prior’s lodging,[39] and leading eastwards from its southern part was a second or south dorter, built over a vaulted undercroft, remains of which were discovered in 1900. This last-named appears to have been the Provincial’s lodging, and the whole building formed the northern range of the Infirmary or Inner Cloister. The infirmary on the west, the upper and lower libraries on the east, and the bakehouse and brewhouse on the south completed the enclosure.

[39] To the prior’s lodging belonged two gardens, described as adjacent to the lodging called the priory lodging on the east side, and above the great royal garde-robe, vulgarly called “the King’s great Wardrobe on the west side thereof, containing by estimation one acre of land.” These gardens are of considerable interest, as it was in this neighbourhood that Shakespeare’s house in Blackfriars formerly stood.—_Archæologia_, vol. LXIII.

Of the Great Cloister the southern range was occupied by the Frater (or dining hall), and on the east was the Guest House, which, even before the Dissolution, was let out to tenants. This was the lodging prepared for Charles V. in 1522, and the porter’s lodge behind marks the point at which commenced the gallery built by Henry VIII. for the Emperor’s convenience, between the Guest House and Bridewell. A window appears to have been formed between the nave of the Church and the Guest rooms, occupying much the same position as that to be seen at Westminster Abbey. South of this range and communicating with the Frater were the Buttery and Kitchen. The Guest House ultimately passed into the hands of the Apothecaries’ Company (1632), who rebuilt it after the Great Fire. In size and position, therefore, the present building follows precisely that which gave shelter to the Emperor Charles V. To the south of the Kitchen and Buttery was the Chapel of St. Anne, which, though not a parish church, was no doubt erected for the benefit of the various lay inhabitants of the precinct. Its site is now occupied by _The Times_ printing office, and considerable remains came to light in the course of rebuilding in 1872.

Regarding the “Upper Frater,” which stands still farther south, I will quote from my contribution to _Archæologia_ (vol. lxiii.):—“The only buildings now remaining to be noticed formed a block of considerable size lying to the south-west of the cloister, and quite separate from the ranges flanking it. The main structure of the group was a building of such unusual size and obscure designation that it will be necessary to consider it at some length. Hugh Losse describes it as ‘One house called the upper frater containeth in length 107 ft. by 52 ft., abutting south and east to the Lady Kingston’s house and garden, north to a hall where the King’s revels lieth at this present and west toward the Duchy chamber and Mr. Portinary’s house. A void room being an entry towards the little kitchen and a coal house containing in length 30 ft. and in breadth 17 ft. One chamber called the Duchy chamber, with a dark lodging thereunder containing in length 50 ft. and in breadth 16 ft., abutting against the north end of the said frater and abutting west upon Mr. Portinary’s parlour.’

“The mention of Mr. Portinary’s parlour fixes the position of the whole block, and shows that the Duchy chamber flanked the kitchen yard (mentioned above) on the south side, for the same parlour is mentioned as the southern boundary of the yard.

“Setting it out on these lines we find that the eastern wall of the upper frater must have been the western building line of Printing House Square, while its southern end is represented approximately by Huish Court.

“A second description of this building is to be found in a rather unexpected quarter. In 1597 Sir William More, of Loseley, as executor to Sir T. Cawarden, sold to James Burbidge a certain great building with yards and subsidiary structures adjoining, of which the description in the deed of sale leaves no doubt that it was the upper frater and its adjoining buildings of the earlier survey.[40] If any further proof were needed beyond the similarity in description it is found in the fact that the upper frater is the only available building once belonging to Sir Thomas Cawarden that his executor could have sold. The description in the deed is too lengthy and involved to be quoted in full, but it describes a building three storeys high, the top floor being formerly one great room with staircases leading up to it, bounded on the north by the Pipe office and its yard (formerly the kitchen yard). This was the structure that James Burbidge transformed into the celebrated Blackfriars Theatre, and a document recently discovered by Dr. Wallace gives its internal dimensions as 66 ft. by 46 ft.[41] It will be at once seen that the width 46 ft. internal agrees admirably with the external width of the upper frater, 52 ft., allowing some 3 ft. for each side wall. The difference in length is accounted for by the fact that Burbidge did not make use of the whole building, but divided off the northern part into ante-rooms and apartments for the children of the chapel, &c., leaving 66 ft. out of 107 ft. for the theatre itself.[42]

[40] Printed in full in Halliwell-Phillipps’s _Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare_, Vol. II., p. 299.

[41] Dr. Wallace, _The Children of the Chapel at Blackfriars_, p. 39.

[42] A drawing in the Gardner Collection, supposed to represent the front of the theatre, is reproduced in G. P. Baker’s _The Development of Shakespeare as a Dramatist_. It indicates a classic building with an open colonnaded portico, but the ascription is doubtful.

“With regard to the monastic use of this building it was obviously not the common frater of the friars, which here flanked the cloister. There is, however, one mediæval building, of the existence of which there is documentary evidence—‘the Parliament Chamber’—which in all probability is the structure in question. It was the great apartment used for the sittings of two parliaments of Henry VIII., and which also witnessed the trial for the divorce of Catherine of Arragon and Henry VIII. before Cardinals Campeggio and Wolsey.

“The writ of summons for this trial describes it as the ‘Parliament Chamber near the Friars Preachers.’ The fact that this name is used is sufficient proof that the great frater of the priory is not referred to, while the term ‘near’ implies that it was not one of the main block of the priory buildings grouped round the cloister, but lay somewhere within the precinct.

“The upper frater will be found to satisfy all the conditions required. It was the largest hall in the precinct, and a large apartment would be essential both for the ceremonial of the trial and for the sittings of Parliament. Secondly, it was situated on the outskirts of the priory buildings, suiting admirably the description. Thirdly, there is no record of the existence of any other hall of sufficient dimensions in a similar situation; and lastly, the small structure adjoining it was called the Duchy chamber, which argues an official use at some time of these apartments.

“All things considered, then, there is every likelihood of the identity of the ‘Parliament Chamber’ with the house called the upper frater and the Blackfriars Theatre of later times, and we may conclude that when Shakespeare’s _Henry VIII._ was played at Blackfriars the celebrated trial scene was acted within the actual walls that witnessed the real drama that ruined the fortunes of the great cardinal and put an unhappy termination to Queen Catherine’s married life.”

WHITEFRIARS, LONDON.

The London house of the Carmelites or the White Friars lay between Fleet Street and the River Thames, their precinct being bounded on the west by the Inner Temple—the present houses of King’s Bench Walk—and on the east, roughly by the present Whitefriars Street. Bouverie Street runs across the nave of their Church and traverses the site of the west walk of the cloister.

_Plan by A. W. Clapham._]

Although little has been hitherto known concerning the buildings, it is possible, with the assistance of a plan of seventeenth century date, of documentary evidence of the period of the Suppression, and of the evidence of remains discovered on the site, to present a very fair idea of the general arrangements of the Priory of Our Lady of Mount Carmel before its destruction.

The house of the White Friars in London was founded by Sir Ralph Gray in 1241, and Stow tells us that in the fourteenth century their Church was rebuilt by Hugh Courtenay, Earl of Devon, whose house adjoined the precinct. Various additions were made to their property about this time. Courtenay was succeeded as patron by Sir Robert Knolles, and the choir, presbytery, and steeple were rebuilt by Robert Marshall, Bishop of Hereford, in 1404–16. The precinct was extended to the Thames by the year 1396.

The position of the cloister is accurately shown on the seventeenth century plan already referred to. The Church lay to the north of it, and the north-east angle of the nave was discovered incorporated in some old buildings in Bouverie Street. It was a massive structure of fourteenth or fifteenth century date, built of chalk and ragstone with quoins of Godstone stone. The wall returned at right angles at the east end of the yard at the back of the house, and apparently continued westward right under Bouverie Street, the south having been the internal face. Within the angle was a vault containing the remains perhaps of Sir John Paston, who in his will, dated 1477, bequeaths “my body if I die in the city of London [to the church] of our Lady in the White Friars there, at the north-east corner of the body of the Church, and there to be made an oratory ... to the value of xx ls.”

The height of the wall makes it almost certain that the aisle was lighted by lofty windows similar to those to be seen at Austin Friars, and that the clerestory was omitted, as indeed is distinctly shown on Wyngaerde’s view of London. If this were so, it would have been necessary to leave an open court between the cloister and the Church to light the south aisle precisely as was done at the Grey Friars. The nave would thus be some 80 ft. wide and apparently some 150 ft. or 9 bays long.

From the list of burials and other sources we learn that there was the usual “walk between the choir and the church,” or passage way beneath the steeple. The fifteenth century choir was almost certainly aisleless, and to the south of it, separated by an open space, was the “old quire” of Sir Ralph Gray’s thirteenth century building, which had been left standing while the new church was in process of construction.

From particulars of the grants made at the Dissolution, and with the help of the sixteenth century plan in the Print Room of the British Museum, it is possible to extract the following information. The cloister measured 97 ft. 6 in. from east to west and 91 ft. from north to south, including the walks which were built over in accordance with the general practice of the friars. The eastern range held the dorter on the first floor and the southern range the frater, while the western buildings perhaps contained the library (which is mentioned in connection with the cloister), since the Guest Hall must almost certainly be assigned to a long building shown on the plan extending westwards from this side parallel with the nave of the Church. The Chapter House was built out from the eastern range, and south of it was the prior’s lodging, probably on the spot where still lies a small vaulted crypt beneath the pavement of Britton’s Court—the sole remaining relic of the Carmelite Priory. This vault, some 12 ft. 6 in. square, has a small door at the north end of the west wall, and is of a curious domed form with diagonal and intermediate ribs meeting at a carved boss in the centre, which apparently represents a full-length figure within a large Tudor rose.

Beyond this our information is uncertain; it is impossible to locate the infirmary, and such names as “the Court Place,” “the Brewhouse,” and the “Mill House” can only be approximately referred to any given locality. It is to be feared that little further information is likely to come to light unless some extensive rebuilding takes place upon the site. With the means at our disposal, however, the main buildings have been identified, although the little vaulted cellar under the prior’s house and the nameless grave in the nave now filled with concrete are the only existing relics of the great convent that stood for three hundred years upon the Strand of the Thames between Temple Garden and St. Bride’s Church.

—A. W. C.

QUEENBOROUGH
CASTLE

_From a Drawing by Hollar._]

XVI.

QUEENBOROUGH CASTLE AND ITS BUILDER, WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM.

The existing architectural works of William of Wykeham are sufficient, both in extent and magnificence, to place him in the foremost rank amongst the great building prelates of the Middle Ages. His own cathedral of Winchester bears ample marks of his munificence, but the twin educational establishments of Winchester and New Colleges are perhaps a finer monument of the foresight that warned him that the days of monasticism were numbered, and that the founding of a college was a more enduring work than the rearing of a minster.

The precise amount of personal control and guidance exercised by the building prelates over the works that they initiated must always remain a moot point, and modern criticism seems inclined to divest them of all credit save that of patrons of the arts. Nevertheless, it is nowise inconsistent with the extraordinary versatility of the mediæval mind that the great statesman and ecclesiastic should also be an adept at architecture, and this is more than likely in the case of William of Wykeham, whose earlier years were spent in supervising the Royal works.

Born in 1324, he became surveyor, at the age of thirty-two, to the works at Henley and Easthampstead (a Royal hunting-box on the skirts of Windsor Park), and later was entrusted with the more important operations at Windsor Castle. Alterations to Leedes (Kent), Dover, and Hadleigh castles came in turn under his care, and in 1361–7 he superintended the building of the entirely new castle of Queenborough.

In those days prolonged and valued service to the Crown was commonly rewarded by ecclesiastical preferment, a form of recompense agreeable alike to both parties; for, while it cost the donor nothing, it provided a lucrative sinecure for the recipient. Thus Wykeham became a noted pluralist, holding as many as a dozen prebends, besides numerous other offices. He was for some years Dean of St. Martin-le-Grand in London, and in 1366 became Bishop of Winchester, a position he occupied for nearly forty years.

His ecclesiastical works at Winchester and Oxford have long received their due meed of admiration, and it is not with them that we are now concerned, but rather with the remarkable castle of Queenborough, the erection of which he supervised.

_Plan from the Hatfield MSS._]

The Island of Sheppey, on which it stood, is a dreary tract of country, separated by a sluggish waterway from the mainland of Kent, and rising on the north side in the low hills of Minster. Since the destruction of the castle, its sole claims to architectural interest are centred in the priory church of Minster and the fine parish church at Eastchurch. The Castle of Queenborough, of which only the earthworks now remain, was begun by Edward III. about the year 1361, and took about six years to build; but from that time little is heard of it till it entered into the extensive schemes of Henry VIII. for the defences of the southern coast, when the building was repaired and brought up to date. On the triumph of the Parliament, Queenborough, in 1650, was surveyed by their orders, with the other Crown lands, with a view to its sale. In this survey it is described as “lying within the common belonging to the town of Queenborough and containing about twelve rooms of one range of building below stairs, and about forty rooms from the first storey upward, being circular and built of stone with six towers and certain out-offices, all the roof being covered with lead. Within the circumference of the castle was one little round court paved with stone, and in the middle one great well, and without the castle was one great court surrounding it, both court and castle being surrounded with a great stone wall, and the outside of that moated round.” The Commissioners speak of it somewhat contemptuously as having been built in the time of bows and arrows, and it was almost immediately sold and pulled down. Fortunately a careful ground plan, here reproduced, is preserved amongst the Hatfield papers, and a drawing by Hollar taken shortly before its demolition gives some indication of the remarkable form and unusual appearance it formerly presented.

In the history of English military architecture the Castle of Queenborough occupies an isolated position. It was almost the earliest example of the fort, in the modern sense, as opposed to the fortified dwelling-house, and was the immediate precursor of the “castles,” so called, of Henry VIII. Castle-building under Edward I., as exemplified in the great structures reared by that sovereign in Wales, is but little altered in general form from the larger fortifications of the Norman and Angevin kings, the rectangular keep and mound, however, being abandoned. Conway, Carnarvon, and Beaumaris are familiar examples of this period, which was followed by a rapid transition. The tendency became all for compactness and centralisation, the result being a great square block, with towers at the angles and a central courtyard. Numerous buildings of this class, such as Bolton-in-Wensleydale, Wressle, and Sheriff Hutton, were erected towards the close of the fourteenth century, and form almost the latest type of domestic combined with genuine military architecture which this country produced. Queenborough, as we have said, stands quite apart from either class. It provides no domestic accommodation worthy of the name, and its fifty-odd rooms, while imposing in number, were insignificant in size, being placed one above the other in the six lofty circular towers that surrounded the central courtyard. The perfect symmetry of the design is another unusual feature, in which the value of the circular plan, in the defensive warfare of those days, is fully appreciated.

The building which approaches it most nearly in form is the castle of Camber, built by Henry VIII. nearly two hundred years later, in the flat saltmarsh on the seaward side of Rye. Here, however, we have a circular keep in the centre, and the flanking towers are transferred to the perimeter of the polygonal outer curtain; and, furthermore, the danger of lofty towers in the face of artillery has reduced the whole structure to a low, squat form, far different from the aspiring turrets of Queenborough.

Attempts have been made, notably in the Winchester volume of the _Archæological Journal_, to recover the plan of Queenborough, but the drawing here reproduced for the first time sets at rest all question as to its form, and provides another interesting landmark in the history of architectural development.

—A. W. C.

INDEX.

A.

Abbot Archbishop, 219, 230, 234

Abbot’s Hospital, Guildford, 215–237

Abingdon, Christ’s Hospital, 236

Abingdon, Tompkins’ Almshouses, 236

Adam, Robert, 194

Alcazar, Palace of, 3

Allen, Edward, 17, 18, 21

Aldgate Priory, 84

Almshouses, 215–237

Alnwick Abbey, 110
Castle, 194

Anne of Denmark, 190

Apothecaries Hall, 36
Company, 260

Archer, William, 15, 23, 24

Architects, Elizabethan, &c. _See under_ Chrismas, Jansen, John of
Padua, Hawthorne, Needham, Osborne, Smithson, Spicer, Symonds,
Thorpe, Torrington, Toto del’ Nunziata

Architecture, Domestic, 3, 7, 69–75, 124, 127, 128, 131, 132
Military. _See_ Castles
Mediæval Planning, 31

Arundel House, Strand, 182
Street, 182
Earl of, 5, 182

Ashby-de-la-Zouche, Castle, 73

Atheny Friary, 246

Audley End, 190

Aubrey, 80, 92, 99, 101

Augustinian, Canons, 110

Austin Friars. _See_ Friars

Austin Friars (Church), London, 243, 244, 250, 265

B.

Bankside, 17–18

Banquet House, 10, 11, 12

Baptist’s Head Tavern, 177

Barber’s Hall, 36

Barking Abbey, 197–214

Barley, Dorothy, 200

Barnstaple, Penrose Almshouses, 230

Bayham Abbey, 108

Beamsley Hospital, Yorks, 221, 228

Beaufort House. _See_ Chelsea
Henry, Duke of, 96, 99
Cardinal, 225

Beaulieu, 4

Beaumaris Castle, 274

Bede, 199

Bee, Anthony Bishop of Durham, 52, 64

Bedford House, 182
Earl of, 182

Belvoir Priory, 110

Benedictines, The, 70, 110, 242

Beowulf, 69

Bear Garden, The, 16

Berkhampstead Castle, 141, 142

Berlin, 31

Bishop Auckland, 73

Blackfriars. _See_ Friars

Blackfriars, London, 255–263

Blackfriars Theatre, 262, 263

Blackheath, Morden College, 236

Blois, Bishop Henry of, 70

Blomfield, Professor, 6

Blount (Tomb), 42

Bolton-in-Wensleydale, 274

Bradford-on-Avon, Halls Almshouses, 236

Bramshill, 185

Bray, Jesus Hospital, 225

Braun and Hohenberg, 5

Brenan, Gerald, 188

Brickbarn Close, 94

Brickwork, 10, 79

Bridewell, 4

Brinkburn Abbey, 211

Britain’s Burse. _See_ New Exchange

Bromley-by-Bow, Tudor House, 195

Bromley College, 236

Brushfield, Dr. T. N., 153, 157, 160, 163

Brussels, 31

Buck, Samuel and Nathaniel, 52

Buckler, J. C., 59

Burbidge, James, 261, 262

Burghley House, 189
Lord. _See_ Cecil

C.

Caen, 70

Camber Castle, 274

Cambridge, Pepysian Library, 157, 184
Queen’s College, 145
St. Radegund’s, 211

Campeggio, Cardinal, 262

Canaletto, 190

Canterbury Cathedral (Christ Church), 74

Cardiff (Franciscan House), 247

Carlisle, Earl of, 188

Carlisle, 113
Bishop of, 182, 187

Carmelites, The, 243, 245, 263–266

Carnarvon, 274

Carthusian Order, 220, 225

Castell, Robert, 258

Castle Acre, 74

Castle Rising, 36
Holy Trinity Hospital, 187

Castles, English (Fort), 31, 69, 70, 141, 274, 275

Cawarden, Sir Thomas, 5, 258, 261

Cecil, Lord Burleigh, 49, 81, 84, 150
Sir Robert, Earl of Salisbury, 79, 81, 83, 84, 85, 89, 91, 94, 153,
157, 160, 182

Chapterhouses, 107, 108, 110

Charles V., Emperor, 36, 256, 260

Charles I., 96, 146

Charterhouse, The, 132

Chaucer, Geoffrey, 225

Chelsea, 57
Henry VIII.’s Manor House, 4
Home of Sir Thomas More, 77–103
Park, 94
Royal Hospital, 237

Chertsey Abbey, 199, 202
Register, 199

Chester Cathedral, 211
Bishop of, 182

Chibburn, 178

Chichester, St. Mary’s Hospital, 222, 246

Chipping Campden, 229

Chiswick, 99

Cholmeley, Sir Richard, 42

Chrismas, Gerard, 189, 190

Christchurch, 75
Castle, Twynham, 70, 73, 74, 145

Christina de Bosham, 212

Christina de Valoyns, 212

Cistercians, The, 110, 242, 247

Clare (Ireland), 246

Cleveland, Duchess of, 3, 5

Clinton, Edward Lord, 201

Clun Hospital (Holy Trinity), 187, 230

Cockersand Abbey, 105–117

Colchester Castle, 36

Conway Castle, 274

Corsham Almshouses, 236

Cotton, Sir Robert, 159, 160

Coventry, Ford’s Hospital, 226, 258
Christ Church, 245

Courtenay, Hugh, Earl of Devon, 265

Cranfield, Lionel, Earl of Middlesex, 92, 94

Crosby Hall, 58, 59, 64, 119–138
Sir John, 121, 122, 127, 138

Croydon, Archbishop’s Palace, 89, 132
Whitgift Hospital, 229, 230, 233

Cuddington Manor House, 4
Richard de, 4

D.

Dacre, Anne, Lady, 81, 85

Danvers House, 80, 81, 94, 95, 99
Sir John, 80, 92, 99, 101

de Clare, Family of, 146

de la Pole, Catherine, 205

Denham, The Savoy, 74

de Witt, Johannes, 16

Digby, George, Earl of Bristol, 96

Dollman, F. T., 220

Dominicans, The, 242, 246, 255

Dovecot Close, Chelsea, 89, 91, 99

Dover, 84
Castle, 271
St. Martin’s Priory, 74

Drogheda, 246

Dulwich College, 15

Dunbar, 245

Dunwich, Grey Friars, 247

Durdans, Epsom, 12

Durham Cathedral, 212
House, Strand, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 182

E.

Easby Abbey, 75, 113

Eastchurch, 272

East Grinstead, Sackville College, 229

Easthampstead, 271

Edgar the Peaceable, 199

Edward the Confessor, 145, 147

Edward I., 249, 253, 274

Edward II., 249

Edward III., 246, 272

Edward IV., 58, 64, 65, 122

Edward VI., 5, 38, 141, 201, 258

Egglestone Abbey, 108

Elgin Abbey, 113

Elizabeth, Queen, 6, 52, 89, 142, 163, 228

Elizabethan Surveyors, 50. _See also_ Architects

Eltham Palace, 47–66, 96, 128
Chancellor’s Lodging, 60
Chapel, 57, 58
Great Hall, 58, 59, 122, 128, 132
Green Court, 60, 65

Ely, Longchamp, Bishop of, 37

Emanuel Hospital, Westminster, 81

Ennis, 246

Erasmus, 79

Erkenwald, Bishop of London, 199

Essex House, Strand, 182, 187
Earl of, 182

Ethelburga, St., 199, 208

Evelyn, 6, 10, 184, 188, 193

Ewell, Vicarage, 12

Exchange, The New, in the Strand, 151–164

Exeter, Bishop of, 182

Ewelme Hospital (Oxon.), 225, 236

F.

Faithorne, 157

Felton, Sybil, 205

Field of the Cloth of Gold, 10

Fitzstephen, William, 37, 181, 248

Fitzwilliam, Lord, 5

Ford Abbey, 75

Forster, Sir Thomas, 177

Fort. _See_ Castles

Fortune Theatre, The, 13–28

Franciscans, The, 241, 242, 243, 247

Fresham, Prior, 177

Friars, The, 239–267

G.

Galway, 246

Garrett, Daniell, 193

Gaynsford Hall, Carshalton, 12

Genibelli, Federigo, 86

George I., 164

Glastonbury, St. Mary Magdalene’s Hospital, 225

Globe Theatre, The, 16, 17, 18, 21

Gilbertine, The, Order, 248

Godalming, Wyatt’s Hospital, 230

Golding (Golden) Lane, 18

Gorges House, 80, 81, 91, 99

Gorges, Sir Arthur, 80, 91, 99

Gothic Architecture, 122

Gray, Sir Ralph, 265, 266

Gray’s Inn Hall, 132

Graystanes, Robert de, 52

Greene, 27

Greenwich, Holy Trinity Hospital, 187, 229
Palace, 201

Guildford, Abbot’s Hospital, 215–237

Guisnes, 4, 10

H.

Hadleigh Castle, 271

Hainault, Forest of, 146, 200

Hague, The, 31

Hall, The (in Domestic Architecture), 59, 84, 87, 124, 127, 132
Origin of, 65–75
The Aisled, 72, 73, 145

Hall’s Chronicle, 10

Hammerbeam Roof, 132

Hampton Court, 49, 132

Hatfield, Thomas, Bishop of Durham, 154

Havering Bower, 142, 145–150

Hawthorne, H., 142

Hay, Lord (Viscount Doncaster), 188

Hengrave Hall, 9

Henley, 271

Henry II., 69

Henry III., 37

Henry VI., 58

Henry VII., 3, 182

Henry VIII., 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 38, 58, 64, 65, 75, 79, 143, 197, 200,
201, 242, 255, 256, 260, 262, 272, 274

Henslowe, Phillip, 17, 18, 21

Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, 171

Hereford, Coningsby Hospital, 230

Hertford Castle, 70, 73, 141–145

Higham Ferrers, Bede House, 222

Holbein, 79, 85

Hospitals, Mediæval. _See_ Almshouses

Hospitallers, The Knights, 167, 168, 177

Houghton, Roger, 91

Horwood (Plan of London), 193

Howard, Henry, 1st Earl of Northampton, 184, 187
Henry, Earl of Surrey, 187
Thomas, Earl of Suffolk, 187
2nd Earl of Suffolk, 187

Howden (Yorks.), 113

Hull, Holy Trinity Church, 253

Hulne (Northumberland), 247

Hunting Lodge (Elizabethan), 11, 12

I.

Inchcolm Abbey, 113

Infirmaries (Monastic), 72, 213, 220

Ingoldsthorpe, Lady, 258

Innyards (galleried), 22

Ireland (the Friars in), 243, 245

Isle of Wight, 86

Isleworth, Syon House, 187, 194

J.

James I., 57, 80, 96, 163, 230

James II., 42

Jansen, Bernard, 189

John, King, 37

John of Padua, 6

Jones, Inigo, 49, 99, 184, 189, 190

Jumièges, 70

K.

Kensington Palace, Orangery, 11

King, Dr. John, 89

Kingston, Lady, 261

Kip, 81, 85, 94, 96, 99

Kirkleatham Hospital, Yorks., 236

Kirkstall Abbey, 71, 211

Knolles, Sir Robert, 265

Knyff, 81

L.

Lambeth Palace, 132

Lancaster Priory, 108
Parish Church, 113

Langland, William, 127

Laycock Abbey, 75

Leedes Castle (Kent), 271

Leicester, Earl of, 182, 226

Leicester, Trinity Hospital, 222
Wigston’s Hospital, 222

Le Neve, 9

Lennox, Duchess of, 96

Lethieullier, Smart, 201, 208, 210

Lewes Castle, 74

Lewisham, Colfe’s Almshouses, 236

Lincoln, 248
Earl of (Henry Clinton), 80, 91, 92
3rd Earl of, 80, 92

Lindsey, Earl of, 57, 80, 96, 99
House (Dr. Mayerne’s), 57, 80, 81, 91, 96

Lisbon, 31

Lisle, John, 96

Llandaff, Bishop, 182

Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, 37

Loseley Hall MSS., 168, 172, 258, 261

Losse, Hugh, 261

_Louvre_, 131

Ludlow Castle, 113

Lumley, Lord, 5, 6

Lyddington, Jesus Hospital, 229

Lynn, Greyfriars, 245, 258
St. Margaret’s, 110

M.

Mabel de Bosham, 200, 210

Madrid, 3, 31

Maidenhead, Smyth’s Almshouses, 236

Malta, 168
Knights of, 167

Maplestead, Little, 178

Marlowe, 24

Marshall, Robert, Bishop of Hereford, 265

Marston, 24

Mary, Queen, 5, 143, 171

Maud, Abbess, Daughter of Henry II., 210

Maud de Loveland, 210

Maurer, J., 190

Mayerne, Sir Theodore, 57, 80, 96

Maynard, H., 82

Melton, John, 24

Merstham, 4

Merton, 4

Mile End, Almshouses, 236

Military Orders of Monks, 167

Milman’s Row, Chelsea, 80

Minster, 272

Monastic building, 71, 74

Moor Hall (Middlesex), 178

Moravian Burial Ground, Chelsea, The, 89, 99

Moravians, The, 80, 81, 99

More, Sir Thomas, 79, 80, 81, 84, 85, 92

More, Sir William, 261

Mountfichet, Family of, 146

Mylne, 193

Mytton, 114

N.

Needham, James, 200

Newark, 253

Newcastle (Castle), 36
Jesus Hospital, 236

Nonsuch Palace, 1–12

Norden, 159

Northampton, Earl of, 183, 184

Northumberland House, Strand, 179–195

Norwich, Bishop of, 182

Nottingham, Collins’ Almshouses, 236

Nun Monkton, 211

Nurstead Court, 74

O.

Oakham Castle, 73, 145

Ogilby and Morgan’s Map of London, 32, 35

Ongar Castle, 141

Oxford, 272
Bodleian Library, 81, 200

Orangeries, 11

Oriel, 9, 59, 65, 75, 85, 88, 131

Osborne, Mr. (1610), 157

P.

Pargetting, 9

Paris, 31

Paris Garden, 17

Paston, Sir John, 265

Paulet, Sir William, 1st Marquis of Winchester, 81, 92
2nd Marquis of Winchester, 81
Marchioness of Winchester, 81

Paulton Square, 89

Pepys, 80, 101, 164

Pepysian Library, Cambridge, 157, 184

Percy, Henry, 9th Earl of Northumberland, 187

Percy, Algernon, 10th Earl of Northumberland, 187, 188

Percy, Josceline, 11th Earl of Northumberland, 188

Percy (Smithson) Hugh, Duke of Northumberland, 188

Perpendicular Period of Gothic Architecture, 122–124

Petworth, Somerset Hospital, 236

Phillip II. of Spain, 3

Phillipps, J. O. Halliwell, 15, 261

Pinelli, Cataneo, 122

Pleshy, 146

Portinary, Mr., 261

Premonstratensian Canons, 108, 110

Pugin, 50, 59

Pyrgo Palace, 146, 147

Q.

Quainton, Winwood’s Almshouses, 236

Queenborough Castle, 269–275

Queensferry, 245

Quinn, 246

R.

Radnor, Earl of, 102

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 154, 157

Rayleigh Castle, 141

Redman, Bishop, 108

Reigate Stone, 4, 58, 135, 138, 209, 212

Renaissance compared with Gothic, 123

Restalrig Church, 113

Rhodes, 168

Richard I., 37

Richard II., 146

Richard III., 121, 131
Churches (Yorks.), 113, 243, 245

Richmond Castle (Yorks.), 70, 73, 145
Palace, 4, 5, 11
Park, 188

Rochester Castle, 36
Cathedral, 211

Rome, 31

Roofs, Timber, 59, 132
Hipped, 236

Rood (at Barking), 205, 206

Roper, William, 91, 92

Rose Theatre, The, 17

Rosserk, 246

Rushton, Northants, 177

Russell House, 187

Rye (Austin Friars), 246

S.

Sackville, Sir Robert, 81

Sandhills, 94

St. Albans, 248
Abbey, 208

St. Andrews (Scotland), 246

St. Bride, Fleet Street, 6

St. Dominic, 241

St. Erkenwald, Bishop of London, 199

St. Francis of Assisi, 241, 242

St. Helen’s, London, 211

St. Hildelitha, 208

St. James’s, Clerkenwell, 177