Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

"There was also a great brass candlestick hanging in the middle of the quire, containing a dozen and a half of lights, with another bow candlestick about the brass eagle. These both were broke in pieces, and most of the brass carried away and sold.

"A well disposed person standing by and seeing the souldiers make such spoil speaks to an officer, desiring him to restrain them; who answered, 'See how these poor people are concerned to see their idols pulled down.' "When they had thus defaced and spoiled the quire, they made up next to the east end of the church, and there break and cut in pieces, and afterwards burn the rails that were about the communion table. The table itself was thrown down, the tablecloth taken away, with two fair books in velvet covers; the one a bible, the other a common prayer book, with a silver bason gilt, and a pair of silver candlesticks beside. But upon request made to Colonel Hubbert, the books, bason, and all else, save the candlesticks, were restored again.

two round arches communicating with the great behind the ceiling, with some twenty pieces of gold laid western porch. The porch is now the site of the tower; there by a person a little before. This encourages the it had a raised platform eighteen inches high, form- souldiers in their work, and makes them the more eager in ing a step along the whole of the south side, where was breaking down all the rest of the wainscot. The book was the entrance to the chapel. Over the outer western door called Swapham,' and was afterwards redeemed by a were two verses from Eccles. v. A parvise over the porch person belonging to the minster for ten shillings. was formerly used as a schoolroom, and from the following entry it appears that the wardmotes were at one time held in it:"A wardmote was holden on Sunday, November the 6th, in the church." This was in 1592, and in the same year is this entry: "To be paid unto William Saker 20l. in the west porch of Faversham church." Beneath the chapel is an undercroft, having three small round pillars supporting a chalk roof with stone groins. Much ancient stained glass was once in the church, but almost the only remains are in the east window of St. Thomas's chapel, which was made at the expense of Simon Orwell, a brewer in Faversham, temp. Henry VI., and a leading man in Mortimer's rebellion. The remains consist of a small golden lion, some tracery, the hull of a boat, and a rebus-viz., the drawing of a well and the initials S. . There were two heater-shaped shields in the great east window, and six shields in other windows, all containing arms of benefactors; there were also fifteen shields in brass, all of which are missing. So far as I can trace, there were no shields cut in the roof, either on the corbels or the woodwork. Six of the altars mentioned at p. 64 can be traced by the piscine or other evidence remaining; of the other four, some at least were probably built against the western side of some of the large pillars in the nave, now destroyed with the exception of two; there were formerly ten. In pulling down these pillars an ancient hollowed stone, shaped like the smaller half of an egg, per- Now behind the communion table there stood a curious pendicularly divided, was discovered, and also an oblong piece of stone-work, admired much by strangers and trastone trough for baptizing children by immersion. The hol-vellers: a stately skreen it was, well wrought, painted and lowed stone was a small altar, quite black by a lamp being gilt, which rose up as high almost as the roof of the church, burnt in it, and has been called by some a Roman altar. In in a row of three lofty spires, with other lesser spires grow1444 five new bells were purchased of "Johanne Hille of ing out of each of them. This now had no imagery work London, wydowe, " whose receipt for the money is pre- upon it, or anything else that might justly give offence, and served; a sixth bell was added in 1459. The effect of the yet, because it bore the name of the high altar, was pulled new peal was that in 1479 it was necessary to rebuild the all down with ropes, lay'd low and level with the ground. campanile. Of the hermitage, which stood in the churchyard, I have already given an account (see p. 20, ante), the chapel at the N.E. corner was, I suppose, a mortuary chapel and wax house. No account of a churchyard cross remains; and there is no yew-tree here, which is rather unusual. The churchyard is full of Roman remains, broken pottery, oyster shells, tiles, &c. Several urns and coins were found in 1794; and at the east end of the churchyard a considerable quantity of bones of oxen and other animals have been dug up at various times.

G. BEDO.

OUTRAGE BY CROMWELL'S SOLDIERS.-The following "Short and true narrative of the Rising and Defacing the Cathedral Church of Peterborough, by Cromwell's soldiers, in the year 1643," is taken from Gunton's "History of the Church of Peterborough":

"The next day after their arrival, early in the morning, they break open the church doors, pull down the organs of which there were two pair. The greater pair which stood upon a high loft, over the entrance into the quire, was thence thrown down upon the ground, and then stamped and trampled on and broke in pieces.

"Then the souldiers entered the quire, and there their first business was to tear in pieces all the common prayer books that could be found. The great bible indeed, that lay on a brass eagle for reading the lessons, had the good hap to escape with the loss only of the Apocrypha.

"Next they break down all the seats, stalls, and wainscots that was behind them, being adorned with several historical passages out of the old testament, a Latin distich being in each seat to declare the story. Whilst they were thus employed, they happened to find a great parchment book,

"Not long after, on the 13th day of July, 1643, Captain Barton and Captain Hope, two martial ministers of Nottingham or Darbyshire, coming to Peterburgh, break open the vestry, and take away a fair crimson satten table cloth, and several other things that had escaped the former souldiers hands.

46

"Over this place, in the roof of the church, in a large oval yet to be seen, was the picture of Our Saviour seated on a throne; one hand erect, and holding a globe in the other, attended with the four evangelists, and saints on each side, with crowns in their hands, intended, I suppose, for a representation of Our Saviour's coming to judgment. Some of the company espying this, cry out and say, 'Lo, this is the God these people bow and cringe unto; this is the idol they worship and adore.' Hereupon several souldiers charged their muskets (amongst whom one Daniel Wood, of Captain Roper's company, was the chief), and discharge them at it and by the many shots they made, at length do quite deface and spoil [the] picture.

"The odiousness of this act gave occasion (I suppose) to a common fame, very rife at that time, and whence Mer curius Rusticus might have his relation, viz. :-that divine vengeance had signally seized on some of the principal actors; that one was struck blind upon the place, by a rebound of his bullet; that another dyed mad a little after, neither of which I can certainly attest. For, though I have made it my business to enquire of this, I could never find any other judgment befal them then, but that of a mad blind zeal, wherewith these persons were certainly possest.

"Then they rob and rifle the tombs, and violate the monuments of the dead. And where should they first begin, but with those of the two queens, who had been there interr'd: the one on the north side, the other on the south side of the church, both near unto the altar. First then, they demolished Queen Katherin's tomb, Henry the Eighth his repudiated wife: they break down the rails that enclosed the place, and take away the black velvet pall which covered the herse,-overthrow the herse itself, dis placed the gravestone that lay over her body, and have left

nothing now remaining of that tomb, but only a monument of their own shame and villany. The like they had certainly done to the Queen of Scots, but that her herse and pall were removed with her body to Westminster by King James the First, when he came to the crown. But what did remain they served in like manner: that is, her royal arms and escutcheons, which hung upon a pillar, near the place where she had been interr'd, were most rudely pulled down, defaced and torn.

"In the north isle of the church there was a stately tomb in memory of bishop Dove, who had been thirty years bishop of the place. He lay there in portraicture in his episcopal robes, on a large bed under a fair table of black marble, with a library of books about him. These men that were such enemies to the name and office of a bishop, and much more to his person, hack and hew the poor innocent statue in pieces, and soon destroy'd all the tomb. So that in a short space, all that fair and curious monument was buried in its own rubbish and ruines.

"The like they do to two other monuments standing in that isle; the one the tomb of Mr. Worm, the other of Dr. Angier, who had been prebendary of that church.

"In a place then called the new building, and since converted to a library, there was a fair monument, which Sir Humphrey Orm (to save his heir that charge and trouble,) thought fit to erect in his own life time, where he and his lady, his son and wife and all their children, were lively represented in statues, under which were certain English verses written :

were so dazzled, that they thought they saw popery in every picture and piece of painted glass.

"Now the windows of this church were very fair, and had much curiosity of workmanship in them, being adorned and beautified with several historical passages out of scripture and ecclesiastical story; such were those in the body of the church, in the isles, in the new building, and elsewhere. But the cloister windows were most famed of all for their great art and pleasing variety. One side of the quadrangle containing the history of the Old Testament; another, that of the new; a third the founding and founders of the church; a fourth, all the kings of England down. wards from the first Saxon king. All which notwithstanding were shamefully broken and destroyed.

"Notwithstanding all the art and curiosity of workmanship these windows did afford, yet nothing of all this could oblige the reforming rabble, but they deface and break them all in pieces, in the church and in the cloyster, and left nothing undemolisht, where either any picture or painted glass did appear; excepting only part of the great west window in the body of the church, which still remains entire, being too high for them, and out of their reach. Yea, to encourage them the more in this trade of breaking and battering windows down, Cromwell himself (as 'twas reported,) espying a little crucifix in a window aloft, which none, perhaps, before had scarce observed, gets a ladder, and breaks it down zealously with his own hand.

66

But, before I conclude the narrative, I must not forget to tell, how they likewise broke open the chapterhouse, ran"Mistake not, reader, I thee crave, sack'd the records, broke the seals, tore the writings in This is an altar not a grave, pieces, specially such as had great seals annexed unto them, Where fire raked up in ashes lyes, which they took or mistook rather for the popes bulls. So And hearts are made the sacrifice, &c.' that a grave and sober person coming into the room at the time, finds the floor all strewed and covered over with torn "Which two words altar and sacrifice, 'tis said, did so papers, parchments and broken seals; and being astonisht provoke and kindle the zealots indignation, that they re- at this sight, does thus expostulate with them: Gentlemen, solved to make the tomb itself a sacrifice and with axes, (says he,) what are ye doing? they answered, we are pulling poleaxes and hammers, destroy and break down all that and tearing the popes bulls in pieces. He replies, ye are curious monument, save only two pilasters still remaining, much mistaken: for these writings are neither the popes which shew and testifie the elegancy of the rest of the work. bulls, nor any thing relating to him; but they are the Thus it hapned that the good old knight, who was a con- evidences of several mens estates, and in destroying these, stant frequenter of Gods publick service, three times a day, you will destroy and undo many. With this they were outlived his own monument, and lived to see himself car- something perswaded, and prevailed upon by the same ried in effigie on a souldiers back, to the publick market-person, to permit him to carry away all that were left undeplace, there to be sported withall, a crew of souldiers going before in procession, some with surplices, some with organ pipes, to make up the solemnity.

"When they had thus demolished the chief monuments, at length the very gravestones and marbles on the floor did not escape their sacrilegious hands. For where there was any thing on them of sculptures or inscription in brass, these they force and tear off. So that whereas there were many fair pieces of this kind before, as that of abbot William of Ramsey, whose large marble gravestone was plated over with brass, and several others the like, there is not any such now in all the church to be seen; though most of the inscriptions that were upon them are preserved in this book. "One thing, indeed, I must needs clear the souldiers of, which Mercurius Rusticus upon misinformation charges them with, viz. :-That they took away the bell clappers and sold them, with the brass they plucked off from the tombs. The mistake was this: the neighbourhood being continually disturbed with the souldiers jangling and ringing the bells auker, as though there had been a scare-fire, (though there was no other, but what they themselves had made,) some of the inhabitants by night took away the clappers and hid them in the roof of the church, on purpose only to free their ears from that confused noise; which gave occasion to such as did not know it, to think the souldiers had stolen them away.

"Having thus done their work on the floor below, they are now at leasure to look up to the windows above, which would have entertained any persons else with great delight and satisfaction, but only such zealots as these, whose eyes

faced, by which means, the writings the church hath now came to be preserved.

"Such was the souldiers carriage and behaviour all the time during their stay at Peterburgh, which was a fortnights space: They went to church duly, but it was only to do mischief, to break and batter the windows and any carved work that was yet remaining, or to pull down crosses wheresoever they could find them; which the first founders did not set up with so much zeal, as these last confounders pulled them down."

ANCIENT ART TREASURES.-The following letter in the Daily Telegraph, on the ancient art treasures for the British Museum, by Mr. W. R. Drake, may be of interest to our readers :-"Great was the wail amongst lovers of art, when last year it was announced that the fine collection of Cypriote antiquities gathered together by General Cesnola, had been allowed by the authorities of our great National Museum to become the property of our transatlantic friends, instead of finding a resting place, as they might have done, in the British Museum. Now, there is another chance of the nation acquiring a collection of antiquities, of a different character, it is true, but of far greater value and artistic beauty than those which were found in Cyprus. A considerable portion of this attractive collection is now deposited in the British Museum, and will well repay examination by all who are interested in the marvellous art workmanship of the ancients. Greece, Etruria, and Rome contribute to the collections. It would be impossible within the scope of a letter to give anything like a catalogue

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][subsumed]

Queries.

raisonné of the several items; but I would call attention in the reign of Charles II. Archy, as he was called, lies to the fact that the collection consists of 21 pieces of sculp-interred in the churchyard of his native parish of Aruthret, ture in marble or stone, 175 bronzes, 108 terra-cottas, 160 in Cumberland; and by an odd incident, suitable to his provases, 41 ivories, and 25 ancient ambers. Among the fession, the day of his funeral happened to be the first of marbles is the head of Hera, found at Agrigentum, of April. Archy had long shot his bolt with great applause, colossal size and of Greek work, in a style which would till he unfortunately fell upon Archbishop Laud, for which entitle it to a place among the foremost of the existing monu- he was degraded, had his fool's coat pulled over his head, ments of Greek sculpture, and which, in point of simplicity and was expelled the court. When the news arrived of the and dignity of expression, might well merit a place beside tumults in Scotland, occasioned by an attempt to introduce the head of Asklepios that unsurpassed type of ideal the Liturgy there, Archy unluckily met the archbishop, and beauty, now in the Museum. The bronzes include, amongst had the imprudence to say to his grace, "Who is fool other noteworthy objects, a seated male figure from Taren- now?" Of this the prelate complained to the privy council, tum, of matchless beauty, which, in the impression of heroic to which he was then going, and, in consequence, the folpower it conveys, is not unworthy of being compared with lowing entry was made in the council book: "Ordered that the Theseus of the Parthenon, which the attitude of the Archibald Ármstrong, the king's fool, be banished the court figure strikingly recalls. Amongst the bronzes will also be for speaking disrespectful words of the Archbishop of Canfound one of great value from Proeneste, being a strigil, terbury." According to Howell, Archy had the honour of which, judging from its size and beauty, was designed as attending Charles, when Prince of Wales, on his romantic a votive ornament; the handle is formed of a female figure expedition to Spain, where his fool's coat gained him admitexquisitely modelled. The terra-cottas are a series present- tance into the presence of the Infanta and her ladies of ing several new types of very graceful female figures, and honour, who were pleased with his wit and extravagance. include four very remarkable figures-believed to be unique One day they were discoursing what a marvellous thing it -of actors of the ancient Roman stage, representing the was, that the Duke of Bavaria with less than fifteen thousand glutton, parasite, thief, and feeble old man. The majority men, after a long march, should encounter and defeat the of the vases are of great importance, including a remarkable Palgrave's army, consisting of above twenty-five thousand, archaic œnochoe, a number of rhytons or drinking-cups; in consequence of which Prague was taken. When Archy several likythi, remarkable for their fine condition, including heard this, he answered that he could tell them a stranger three from Athens, one of which is especially prized as thing than that, "for was it not very surprising that, in the retaining its original colours; a small black cup, unique in year 1588, there should come a fleet of one hundred and forty having the figures rendered in intaglio instead of relief, as ships from Spain to invade England, and not ten of them usual in the black ware. The ivories include one specially could get back to tell what became of the rest." remarkable, found at Proeneste, and apparently dating from a period when Greek sculpture was largely influenced by Assyrian art. To the above have to be added a further collection, including two chefs d'œuvre not yet arrived in this country, but which, I am happy to say, are on their road. The most precious of these objects is a bronze head of Venus, WORLE HILL CAMP, WESTON-SUPERof heroic size, in the noblest and purest style of Greek artprobably the finest work, next to the marbles of the Parthenon, yet known. It was found in Thessaly, and dates from a period later, perhaps, than Phidias, but not later than Scopas. There is also an Etruscan terra-cotta sarcophagus from Cervetri, a pendant to the celebrated one in the Louvre, from the Campana collection, but even more interesting, as it has a long Etruscan inscription. It is surmounted by two recumbent figures of a man and woman resting on a kind of couch, which is decorated with bas-reliefs, representing battles and scenes of domestic and public life. The attention of the Museum authorities was called to the last-named precious objects in the autumn, by gentlemen who were well qualified to form an opinion on their merit and value, and also, from personal examination, were able to certify to their importance as an acquisition to the store of ancient art already belonging to the nation. In addition, however, to the testimony thus given, Mr. Newton has recently inspected them, and I believe I am not indiscreetly betraying my knowledge on the subject when I state that he has in the strongest terms reported in favour of the purchase. Strenuous efforts were made by the agents of other countries to purchase them, but fortunately an option was secured for England, and it is this option which the trustees of the My object in now writing is to call the attention of the public generally to the matter, under the conviction that they will concur in the expression of an earnest desire that no niggardly considerations should be allowed to interfere with the acquisition of the treasures now within our grasp, or that the Government should doubt that the House of Commons will hesitate to vote the sum fixed by Mr. Newton as the money value of the collection, and for which sum the British nation may become the possessors."

Museum and the Government have now under consideration.

ARMSTRONG THE JESTER.-The custom of keeping jesters or fools at court ceased with Archibald Armstrong,

66

MARE.

THERE is no notice of either town or camp in the "Beauties
of England and Wales," nor in the older guides to watering-
places; and the more recent local ones are not very reliable.
Weston itself has entirely grown up within the present cen-
tury; even in 1831, when Lewis brought out his valuable
Topographical Dictionary of England," there were only
738 inhabitants. Of the encampment, there is a brief notice
in the discourse of Pettigrew (not Planché) "On the Anti-
quities of Somersetshire,' in the "Journal of the Archæo-
logical Association," Vol. xii. 297, et seq., in which, following
Mr. Warre, he considers the camp as neither Roman nor
Danish, but formed by British tribes, either Belgo or
Hædui, who inhabited this district while Britain was as yet
altogether divided from the Roman world. Mr. Warre
himself, in his interesting paper in the "Proceedings of the
Somersetshire Archæological Society," 1851, pp. 64-85, says
of this most remarkable and mysterious relic of bygone times,
that it may probably be of very remote antiquity, even as
compared with the Roman era; and thinks it possible "the
fortifications on Worle Hill may mark the site of a town inha-
bited in times of extreme antiquity by persons connected with
this traffic (in tin), and that from them the primitive Britons
may have looked down upon Carthaginian, or even Phoeni-
cian ships taking in their cargoes of the mineral wealth of
Bleadon, or the port of Axium were in existence." It is
Mendip, hundreds of years before the Belgic settlement at
almost certain the Phoenicians traded to Cornwall for tin, as
early at least as 1000 B.C.; and probably they came up the
Bristol Channel, as they went to Ireland.
Belgic Britons, says Pettigrew, called Somerset gwlad-yr-
haf, or country of summer, which was also a name applied
by them to Ceylon; and this may possibly point to a con-
nection with a people from the far east. Hence, also, may
have originated the tradition recorded by Keating, that the

The ancient

ancestors of the Irish passed by Ceylon round Asia on their way to Ireland. Keating's traditions, however, though very amusing, are very untrustworthy. There is one circumstance which seems to me to point to a very remote antiquity in the camp; the finding of the remains of Bos longifrons. Although this animal continued to exist, according to Professor Owen ("Palæontology," p. 411), until the historical period, its bones have usually been found associated with those of the mammoth, elephant, &c., animals which are now confined to tropical climates, and which have probably been extinct in this country many thousand years. Lyell thinks the presence of the mammoth entitles a formation to be regarded as very ancient, i.e., in the history of man (" Principles of Geology,' 11th ed. Vol. I. 550, etc). Mr. Warre, in a second paper, 1854, mentions the discovery of some Roman pottery and coins; but quite at the surface, glass beads and fragments of bronze ornaments, which belonged, he thinks, to some Romanized Briton, who had sought refuge within the ramparts at the time of Ceawlin's irruption.

It is difficult even to form a tolerable conjecture as to what may have been the precise relations of the sea and land in this district some few thousand years ago; whether the sea nearly surrounded Worle Hill, as there is reason to believe that within the historical period it used to flow up almost to Glastonbury. Lyell says but little, that "the flats of Somersetshire have received enormous accessions, ie, from what was once sea; and Worle Camp may have stood originally at the end of a ridge extending far out into the sea." I should be glad to hear the opinion of any geologist who has made this part of the coast his study.

F. J. LEACHMAN.

TRIAL BY JURY.-When was trial by jury introduced into this country? Some say it was in use by the ancient Britons. Archbishop Nicholson claims the credit of its institution for Woden, the great Saxon legislator and captain. F. T. R.

EARLY PRINTING.-The first book printed in the English tongue was "The Recuyel of the History of Troy," dated 19th September, 1471. "The Game of Chess," dated 1474, was the first specimen of the art of printing known in this country. The first book printed on English paper "Bartholomew de Glanville," 1495, translated into English by John Trevisa, and printed by Wynkyn de Worde, at Westminster. The paper was made by John Tate, at Hertford, the first paper mill having been set up there in the reign of King Henry VII.

was

Are the above statements to be relied upon as accurate?

A. Z.

Earl of Pembroke. Would any one be so kind as to point out the grounds on which Mr. Gifford based his opinion? I should like to have some proof of Massinger's renunciation. He did not live so long ago as to admit of the events of his life being shrouded in antiquity. SHAGRIT.

HOLYROOD CHAPEL.-What has become of the brazen font which was in Holyrood Chapel, before its destruction in 1554, and which was used as a baptismal font for the children of the royal family? And where are the remains of James V. now? They were so late as the middle of the eighteenth century in this chapel. T. ASTLEY.

MIDDLETON THE GIANT.-There was, some years ago, at Brazenose College, Oxford, a portrait of the celebrated English Giant, John Middleton, who was introduced to the presence of James 1. by Sir G. Ireland. Is it still there, and what is its size? Dr. Plott's account of the giant is that "his hand from the carpus to the end of the middle finger was 17 inches long; his palm 8 inches broad; and his height 9 feet 8 inches, wanting but 6 inches of the size of Goliah.

R. T. S.

HORSE-RACING.-Is it known at what period horse-racing was inaugurated in England? Fitz Stephen, who lived in the reign of Henry II., informs us, in his "Description of London," that horses exposed for sale were tested by being matched against each other; and Mr. Strutt in his work on the "Sports and Pastime of England," states that several race-horses were given to Athelstan by Hugh Capet in the ninth century, on the occasion of the latter soliciting the sister, Ethelswitha, of the former in marriage. But these facts prove nothing.

A. TAYLOR.

[blocks in formation]

GIORNO DEL PONTE.-Whence originated the well-known Pisan festival, Giorno del Ponte? The Pisans say it may be traced to a very remote period, but that is no answer to my SEVENTEENTH CENTURY MUSIC.-Have the musical Pisans themselves know anything about it previous to 1785, question; and I have not been able to find out that the works of the following composers been collected and pub-in which year the royal family of Sicily and the princes of lished? If so, where can they be seen? Benjamin Rogers, Tuscany and Lombardy were present at the sports. Henry Purcell, Dr. William Turner, Pelham Humphrey, be thankful for information on this subject. John Playford, Christopher Gibbons, Captain Henry Cook, John Blow, Dr. Nathaniel Giles, Dr. William Child, Dr. John Wilson, Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Tomkins, Martin Pierson, John Hilton, Henry Lawes, and Elway Bevan. They all flourished in the seventeenth century.

R. DELAMERE.

ROUSSEAU.-Is it true, as Madame de Staël states, that Jean Jacques Rousseau refused a pension offered him by King George III.? I have hitherto understood that the pension was thankfully accepted, but some time afterwards | given up in a hasty moment; and that Rousseau subsequently endeavoured to get it renewed.

H. K. W.

MASSINGER THE POET.-Mr. Gifford, the editor of Massinger's Works, gives as his decided opinion that the poet renounced the reformed religion for the Roman Catholic faith, and consequently lost the patronage of the

I shall HENRY A. K.

Scott met by accident in one of his researches in the Record Office some documents relating to this abbey, and that these suggested to him the name of his celebrated novels. Can any of your readers inform me if this is so? Is the charter of this, the earliest of the Cistercian monasteries in this country, so pleasantly situated on the way near Farnham, still extant; and if so, where is the same?

WAVERLEY ABBEY.-I have heard it stated Sir Walter

ELLOE.

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »