MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
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MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
CHRISTCHURCH GATE, CANTERBURY,
MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
EDITED BY
The Rev. P. H. DITCHFIELD, M.A., F.S.A.
AND
GEORGE CLINCH, F.G.S.
With many Illustrations
LONDON BEMROSE & SONS LIMITED, 4 SNOW HILL, E.G.
AND DERBY 1907
[All Rights Reserved}
TO
THE RIGHT HON. THE LORD NORTHBOURNE, M.A., D.L., F.S.A.
THE PRESIDENT OF
THE KENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
THESE MEMORIALS ARE
BY KIND PERMISSION
INSCRIBED
PREFACE
THE prominent position of Kent among the English counties is universally admitted. For many centuries it has been the high road of communica- tion between the southern half of Britain (including London) and the Continent, and it would be remark- able if it did not possess a past full of historical associations. Quite early in the Christian era — and, indeed, in pre -historic times — Kent was the centre of civilization and industrial activity. These are points which are too well known to require anything more than the slightest reference in this place, but they are sufficient, it is hoped, to excuse some of the omissions in this volume of Memorials. It was, of course, impossible to deal with every phase of Kent's ancient and brilliant story, and the Editors have, therefore, endeavoured to make such a selection of subjects as would fairly represent some of the more important and note- worthy features. They have been particularly fortunate, they feel, in securing the assistance of writers whose special qualifications and researches have enabled them to write monographs of real and permanent value. The monastic, ecclesiastical, military, social, and political sides have all received attention.
viii PREFACE
To the various contributors of articles the Editors tender their sincere thanks ; and to the publishers, and all others who have helped with suggestions, loans of illustrations, etc., they are not less grateful.
December •, 1906.
CONTENTS
Historic Kent ....
St. Augustine's Abbey, Canter- bury
Mediaeval Rood-Lofts and Screens in Kent
Old Canterbury .... Kentish Insurrections .
Some Kentish Castles
Penshurst Place .... Hever Castle ....
Dickens and Kent
Chillington Manor House, Maid- stone
Romney Marsh in the Days of Smuggling ....
Seventeenth Century Church Architecture in Kent
Refugee Industries in Kent
The River Medway and its Mediaeval Bridges .
PAGE
By the Rev. P. H. DITCH- FIELD, M.A., F.S.A. . i
By SEBASTIAN EVANS, Jun. 19
By AYMER VALLANCE, M.A., F.S.A. ... 44
By PHILIP SIDNEY . . no
By GEORGE CLINCH, F.G.S.
By HAROLD SANDS, F.S.A., M.I.Mech.Eng.
By PHILIP SIDNEY .
By the Rev. P. H. DITCH- FIELD, M.A., F.S.A. .
By the Rev. CANON BEN- HAM, D.D., F.S.A.
By J. H. ALLCHIN .
By GEORGE CLINCH, F.G.S.
132
150 215
228
238
253
264
By J. TAVENOR-PERRY . 277
By S. W. KERSHAW, M.A.,
F.S.A 298
By J. TAVENOR-PERRY . 320
Index
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS
Christchurch Gate, Canterbury Frontispiece
{From a Photograph by the PhotochromlCo., Ltd.)
FACING PAGE Kits Coty House . . {From a Photograph by George Clinch) 2
Ethelbert's Tower, St. Augustine's, Canterbury ... 20
(From an old Engraving)
Plan of Excavations at St. Augustine's, Canterbury . . 32-33
St. Augustine's Abbey: the Crypt, from the East ... 36
„ „ Norman Bench-end, Dormitory, and
Southern Side of the Crypt 38
St. Augustine's Abbey : South Side of the Crypt, and North
Side of the Chapter House 40
Northfleet Church : Doors of Rood-Screen .... 50 Minster Church, Sheppey : Painted Beam . . -54
{From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance)
Stalisfield Church: Rood-Screen 64
(From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance)
Shoreham Church : Sketch of North-East Corner of Rood-Screen 66 „ „ Rood-Screen, Elevation of Southernmost
Bay, and Section through Screen and Loft . . .68-69
Appledore Church : View from the Quire .... 74
(From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance)
Lynsted Church : Elevation of North Side of Nave . . 79 St. Alphege's Church, Canterbury : Sketch showing Remains of
Rood-Stair 85
Milton Church, near Sittingbourne : South-East Corner of Nave 90
Eastchurch Church, Sheppey : Detail of Rood-Screen . . 96
(From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance) XI
xii INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
Canterbury Cathedral : Stone Screen 104
(From a Photograph by Valentine &* Sons, Ltd., Dundee)
Rochester Cathedral : Stone Screen 106
West Gate, Canterbury (From a Photograph by H. B. Collis, Canterbury) 1 1 2
" The Canterbury Weavers " „ „ „ 116
The Death of Wat Tyler . „ 136
(From an Engraving after the Picture by J. Northcote, R.A.)
Sir Thomas Wyatt . t „ 142
Sir Edward Hales ,. . (From an Engraving published in 1825) 146
Dover Castle: Ground Plan , 160
Canterbury Castle: Ground Plan 165
„ „ South Front and West Front . . .166
,, ,, . . (From an Engraving published in 1761) 1 68
Rochester Castle : Ground Plan 172
„ „ General View of the Keep . . . .174
(From a Photograph by E. C. Youens, Dartford)
Rochester Castle: Interior of the Keep 176
(from a Photograph by E. C, Youens, Dartford)
Allington Castle: Ground Plan 177
Bayford Castle : Ground Plan 1 79
Colebridge Castle: Ground Plan 182
Early Map ot Canterbury, about 1570 212
The Hall, Penshurst Place: Exterior 216
„ „ Interior 218
Hever Castle : the Gateway 228
(From a Photograph by the Photochrom Co., Ltd.)
Hever Castle, from the Gardens 232
(From a Photograph by the Photochrom Co., Ltd.)
Gadshill, seen from the Garden 240
(From a Photograph by F. Frith &> Co., Ltd., Reigate)
"The Leather Bottle," Cobham (From a Photograph by George Clinch) 242
Bleak House, Broadstairs . . ^ „ „ „ 244
Restoration House, Rochester 246
(From a Photograph by tJte Photochrom Co., Ltd.)
Eastgate House, Rochester 248
(From a Photograph by the Photochrom Co., Ltd.)
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS xiii
FACING PAGE
Rochester Cathedral : West Front 250
(Front a Photograph by the Photochnm Co., Ltd.)
Chillington Manor House : South Front, 1857 .... 254 „ „ the Long Gallery and Cloister,
from Garden 258
New Romney Church 272
Upper Deal Church : West Tower (From a Drawing by /. Tavenor-Perry) 2J&
Charing Church : Benches „ „ „ 280
Chiddingstone Church : South Porch „ „ ,, 280
Groombridge Church : South Porch „ „ „ 282
Northfleet Church: West Tower „ „ „ 283
Plumstead Church : West Tower „ „ „ 286
Hollingbourne Church : the Culpeper Chapel .... 287
(From a Drawing by J. Tavenor-Perry)
Charlton Church : West Tower and South Porch . . .288
(Front a Drawing by J. Tavenor-Perry)
Plaxtole Church : Interior, looking West 290
(From a Drawing by J. Tavenor-Perry)
Plaxtole Church : West Tower (From a Drawing by /. Tavenor-Perry) 2QO
Groombridge: Font . „ „ „ 295
Kemsing Church: Font Cover „ „ „ 296
The Blackfriars', Canterbury 302
(From a Photograph by H. B. Collis, Canterbury)
St. Clement's Church, Sandwich (From a Photograph by George Clinch) 314
The Fisher Gate, Sandwich „ „ „ 316
Hersfield Bridge . . (From a Drawing- by J. Tavenor-Perry) 320
Yalding Bridge . „ „ 322
East Farleigh Bridge „ „ „ 322
Twyford Bridge . „ „ „ 324
Lodingford Bridge . „ „ „ 326
Teston Bridge . „ „ 328
Aylesford Bridge . . „ „ „ 328
Twyford Bridge ... „ „ „ 329
HISTORIC KENT
BY THE REV. P. H. DITCHFIELD, M.A., F.S.A.
GETS and poetasters have sung their sweetest lays in honour of Kent's fair county — "the Garden of England," as loyal Kentish men love to call their beautiful and attractive shire. Historians, too, love to dwell upon all the great events that have taken place within its borders. The history of Kent is in truth an epitome of the history of England — almost all the great scenes presented in the drama of the chronicles of England seem to have been enacted within this important and ancient kingdom, or to have been associated with it, from the time when Caesar's legions first gazed on its white cliffs to the present day. The county is rich, too, in the remains of the prehistoric folk — of Palaeolithic man, who made his primitive weapons and implements, hunted the woolly elephant, the Irish elk, etc., and left behind the evidences of his presence at Swanscombe and Greenhithe and other spots in the Thames valley and other Kentish river-gravels ; of the more civilised Neolithic man, whose sepulchral piles, like Kit's Coty House at Aylesford, whose dwellings at Hayes, West Wickham and Dartford Heath, and whose polished celts and axes afford interesting objects for the study of the curious antiquary.
The relics of the Bronze and Prehistoric Iron Ages are
very numerous and important. Of these much has been
written in learned treatises published in the transactions
of archaeological societies. And here I may remark that
B
2 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
few counties can boast of a more learned and industrious antiquarian society than the Kent Archaeological Society, whose Archceologia Cantiana contains a mine of wealth for all who desire to study the ancient records of this historic county.
The dawn of history arose on this fair region of ancient Britain when Caesar set sail from the Portus Itius, which is usually said to be identical with Boulogne, and first saw the white cliffs of Dover, and affected a landing at Deal, as Mr. Vine demonstrates.1 There the first contest was waged between the islanders and their formidable foes. Caesar graphically tells the story of that landing, and of the bravery of the standard-bearer of the Tenth Legion, who, calling upon the gods for the success of his venture, leaped into the waves, exclaiming, " Leap down, soldiers, unless you wish to betray the eagle to the enemy ; I at any rate shall have done my duty to the State and my general." You may still see at low water the rocks where the gallant Scaeva withstood single-handed the attack of many foes, and then, wounded, trusted himself to the waves and swam back to his comrades. Soon followed that second battle, probably near Ringwould, when the Britons were practically victors, and with shattered fleet and a reduced army the conqueror retired from the inhospitable shores of Britain.
The details of his second venture are too well known to be here recorded. Gradually the Roman power extended itself, and here in Kent we have many evidences of its mighty rule. There is the great road, Watling Street, extending from Dover to London, passing through Canterbury, Faversham, Sittingbourne, Rochester, Dart- ford, and Greenwich. Canterbury was a great centre of roadways. One leads southward to Lympne, and others to Reculver and Ramsgate, and to Sandwich. Canterbury
1 C&sar in Kent, by Rev. F. T. Vine, 1887.
KITS COTY HOUSE, AYLESFORD.
HISTORIC KENT 3
was known as Durovernum, and was protected by walls, as also were Rochester, the ancient Durobrivce, and Dover, then known as Dubris. A Roman pharos or lighthouse shed its gleam on the waves of the channel, and still remains at the western end of St. Mary's Church in the castle precincts. The massive walls of Reculver (Regul- biuni), Richborough (Rutupice), and Lympne (Portus Lemanis\ erected to guard the coast, bear witness to the power of Roman sway and to the skill of Roman builders. Numerous Roman relics of art and skill — houses, ceme- teries, coins — have been found in the county, and proclaim the extent of Roman colonisation and the large number of the conquerors who settled in Kent's fair county.
When the period of the decline and fall of the Roman empire set in, and the Roman legions, called to defend the heart of that empire, could no longer keep in check the turbulent Pictish tribes, the British King Vortigern invited the Saxon freebooters, who were harrying his coasts, to aid him against his northern foes. Thus the coming of the English was inaugurated; and Bede tells that the Jutes, under Hengist and Horsa, came to Kent in three long ships, and landed at Ebbsfleet, on the southern shore of the Isle of Thanet, in 449. No spot in Britain can be so sacred to Englishmen as that which first felt the tread of English feet.1 " There is little to catch the eye in Ebbsfleet itself, a mere lift of higher ground, with a few grey cottages dotted over it, cut off nowadays from the sea by a reclaimed meadow and a sea-wall." But the scene has a wild natural beauty, and historical associa- tions of the highest importance. There, in the Thanet isle, the invaders rested, protected by the galleys that still rode the high seas, and across the narrow strait of sea were their new British allies, thankful that the kindly strait saved them from a too close proximity to their formidable
1 Green. A Short History of the English People, p. 7.
4 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
friends. The chronicles tell of the fight between the British and English at Aylesford, when the former were defeated, Horsa slain, and Hengist and ^Esc, his son,1 obtained the kingdom. Romance wove pretty stories to account for the success of the pagan hosts, and Geoffrey of Monmouth tells of the enamoured Vortigern meeting the beautiful Rowen, daughter of Hengist, and of her pledging him in a golden goblet of wine with the words " Lauerd King wacht heil," and how Hengist gave her in marriage and received in return the province of Kent.
Who were these war-loving hosts that conquered Kent ? Bede calls them Jutes. They were of the same race as the northern Goths, one of the noblest of the European nations, and amongst them were numerous Frisians, whose ancient laws declare that "the race shall be free as long as the winds blow out of the clouds, and the world stands." The trace of old British rule is preserved in the name Kent, or Cantium, the only province of Britain that kept its ancient title. The freedom-loving Frisians be- queathed their national characteristic to their successors in the land of their adoption. Through all the changes of the Anglo-Saxon period, in feudal times and down to our own days, they preserved their liberties, their peculiar customs of inheritance such as gavelkind, and as Dryden wrote —
Among the English shires be them surnamed the free, And foremost ever placed when they shall numbered be.
It was the privilege of the men of Kent to lead the van in the national army in time of war.
There is a distinction between the inhabitants of East and West Kent. The former were known as the " Men of Kent," the latter as " Kentish Men," and it has been suggested that the division of the dioceses of Canterbury and Rochester marks the ancient boundary between the
^Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 455.
HISTORIC KENT 5
two original settlers. In Eastern Kent the Gothic tribes fixed their habitations, in Western Kent the Frisians made their settlements.1
Many relics of the Saxon age have been preserved in Kent. Saxon tombs have disclosed many a choice brooch and elaborate ornament. Runic inscriptions have been found at Dover and Sandwich, and when Christianity came to subdue the paganism of the Kentish folk, many churches were erected which are still partly preserved among the additions of later ages.
If Ebbsfleet is dear to the heart of the Englishman, as the spot where Hengist landed, it is still more sacred to us on account of the advent of Augustine and his com- panions in 597, when they came to convert England to the Christian Faith. ^Ethelbert was King of Kent at that period, and a powerful ruler he was. Under his sway Kent was the chiefest kingdom in England, and Canterbury its chief city. The Saxons of Essex and Middlesex bowed before him and acknowledged ^Ethel- bert as their overlord. East Anglia and Mercia were subject to Kent, whose king extended his sway as far as the Trent and Humber. We can see him sitting with his thanes on the chalk down above Minster, listening to the sermon of the Roman missionary. It was not the first time that he had heard the teaching of Christianity. His queen, Bertha, the daughter of King Charibert of Paris, was a Christian, and with her came her chaplains,
1 Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race, T. W. Shore, p. 181, etc. My colleague, Mr. Clinch, takes a slightly different view of the matter. He states in his Little Guide to Kent that " a ' Man of Kent ' is one born east of the Medway, and the special honour of being associated with that half of the county is supposed to be derived from the tradition that it was the men of that part of Kent who went out with green boughs to meet the Conqueror, and obtained a confirmation of their ancient privileges. The expression, ' a Kentish man,' does not apply merely to the inhabi- tants of West Kent, but is used to imply a resident in Kent generally, without reference to whether his birthplace is on the east or west of the Medway."
6 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
who were allowed to use the ruined British Church of St. Martin at Canterbury for their services.
He was not, however, converted until a year elapsed after the landing of Augustine, and then thousands of Kentish men followed his example and embraced the new faith. ^Ethelbert gave land at Canter- bury for the building of an abbey, arid assigned his palace in that city to Augustine and his monks, retiring to his new palace at Reculver. St. Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury — the first of a long line of prelates whose influence in Church and State has been indeed remarkable. In every period of the nation's history the power of the occupiers of the metropolitan see is shown — a power that is no longer confined to Great Britain, but extends itself to every colony of our world- wide empire. A cathedral church was built by Augus- tine, but it is lost in the greater glory and beauty of its successors. Rochester, too, became a Cathedral city, and a church was built there in 604, when Justus, one of Augustine's band of missionaries, became its first bishop. But troublous times fell upon the shire. ^Ethel- bert's successor, Eadbald, relapsed into idolatry, and a reaction against the new faith followed. Bishop Justus fled to Gaul in 617, but was subsequently recalled by the King. When Egbert died his brother Lothair usurped the throne of Kent, and devastated the country, sparing neither church nor monastery. Then Ethelred of Mercia invaded Kent, spoiled the whole shire, and laid waste Rochester. King Ine of Wessex overthrew the last sem- blance of Kentish power. In 775 the powerful Mercian king Offa fought a great battle at Otford, near Seven- oaks, and extended his rule over the shire. Then came the Danish rovers, who ravaged Kent and spoiled the cathedrals and churches, and the land had little peace.
When Ethelred reigned in 1012 the Danish fleet came to Greenwich and laid there for several years, their army
HISTORIC KENT 7
being entrenched on the high ground of Greenwich Park and Blackheatk They over-ran the country, sacked Canterbury, and brought back to Greenwich as a prisoner Archbishop Alphege, who died at their hands a martyr. To him is the present parish church dedicated. It was woe to the Kentish men when Danish wolves were abroad.
When the Conqueror came the Kentish men preserved their freedom ; perhaps they won it with the aid of the green boughs with which they welcomed him, and their spirited demand of peace with a recognition of their ancient liberties, or war. But they did not escape the domination of strong earthworks which William threw up to overawe his new subjects. At Dover, Rochester, and Canterbury there are remains of earthworks, and at Tunbridge, Leeds, Allington, Chilham, Eynesford, and Saltwood, later castles were built, which were terrifying evidences of the power of the feudal rulers of Britain.
But the Norman builders were employed in other structures, and new cathedrals at Canterbury and Rochester, and many a noble village church, were erected at this period, and in spite of subsequent restorations still bear witness to the skill of the masons of that time. Monastic houses began to multiply, and amongst the most notable were the rival houses of St. Augustine's and Christ Church at Canterbury; Aylesford Friary, the first Carmelite house in England ; the Benedictine houses of Davington, East Mailing (a nunnery) and Rochester ; the Cistercian Abbey of Boxley ; the Premonstratensian Abbeys of St. Rademund and West Langdon ; and some others.
On the death of the Conqueror, the barons, headed by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, rose in favour of Duke Robert against William Rufus. They occupied Rochester Castle, and were besieged by the king. A plague broke out amongst the garrison, and the castle was surrendered to the king, and Odo banished from the realm.
8 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
By far the most important historical event in the history of the county was the murder of Archbishop Thomas a Becket at his cathedral church in 1 1 70. Of the details of the martyrdom it is unnecessary to write. Every one is familiar with the story. The event filled Christendom with amaze. Becket was canonized, miracles were said to have been wrought at his tomb, and then began that long procession of pilgrims to the shrine, " the holy blissful martyr for to seek," who made the old British way a pilgrim's road, and by their offerings increased the stores of the monks of Canterbury, and enabled them to perfect their cathedral. Here Henry II. endured discipline at the hands of the monks for his share in the murder, and far-reaching were the effects of that impetuous crime.
The old Watling Street, the great highway between London and the Continent, has been often trod by royal and important persons. We see Richard the Lion Heart and his band of Crusaders riding along it on their way to fight the Infidel, and many a brave troop of knights and men-at-arms rode through the county to fight on French battle-fields and secure the possessions of the English crown.
King John had much to do with Kent. We find him at Barham at the head of sixty thousand men in 1213. He was at Chilham Castle during his struggle with the Pope, and despatched from that place his adherents, the Justiciary and the Bishop of Winchester, to meet Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, at Dover, in order to demand from him certain articles of concession. Stephen Langton refused, and retired again to France. In consequence of the violation of Magna Charta by King John, the barons offered the crown to Lewis, son of King Philip of France, who accepted it and landed in Kent with a large army. The hireling soldiers of John refused to fight against their French brothers, and the country,
HISTORIC KENT 9
disgusted with the king, was in favour of Lewis. Canter- bury Castle submitted to him ; Dover Castle, however, remained loyal to its English monarch. On the death of John, whose treasure was lost in the Wellstream, where Mr. St. John Hope has ingeniously located it, Prince Lewis was forced to relinquish all hopes of the English crown. An English fleet set sail from Dover, as many other fleets have done in times of national peril, and kept back the French reinforcements, which were approaching the English shore under the notorious pirate " Eustace the Monk." Then did the men of the Cinque Ports show their seamanship and bravery, as they have done in many a gallant defence of our island. The story of the Ports is one of the most fascinating in our English annals.
When war broke out again, and Simon de Montfort led the revolting barons, he assembled a large army at Barham and marched through Kent.
Landing at Dover in 1221, along the Watling Street another little army came, bent on peaceful conquest — the followers of St. Francis, the begging friars, who fixed their abodes amid the meanest hovels of the town, and strove to carry the message of the Gospel to the poor.
Crusaders have often traversed the old road on their way to the Holy Land. Edward L, on his return, came to the Castle of Tunbridge, and was sumptuously enter- tained. Here also his son, afterwards Edward II, resided for some time. Leeds Castle was also held by the first Edward, who often visited there. It was for many reigns the property of the queens of England, and many dis- tinguished guests from across the seas rested there on their way from Dover to London. The castle was besieged by Queen Isabella in 1321, who had been refused admission, and ultimately surrendered to the king. It has been the home of many royal persons, the prison of many others, and in the chapel the Duchess of Gloucester was tried for sorcery by Archbishop Chichele.
io MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
Many were the incursions of the French fleet on the shores of Kent and Sussex, and gallantly did the men of the Cinque Ports guard the coast. In 1295 the foreigners attacked Dover. There was no entente cordiale to restrain their ravages, and again and again they came to plunder and destroy, if only they could escape the watchful eyes of the Kentish mariners, who failed not to pay similar attentions to the towns on the French coast.
Eltham Palace welcomed King Edward II. and his bride Isabella in 1308, where they sojourned fifteen days. This old palace appears to have been a home for royal brides and a birthplace of princes. Isabella of Valois, the queen of Richard II., and Elizabeth Woodville, awaited here their coronations. Prince John, the second son of Edward II., better known as " John of Eltham," was born here, and also Philippa, daughter of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, and Bridget, the seventh daughter of Edward IV. Three Parliaments were held here in the time of Edward III., and a deputation from the House protested here against the proposed invasion of France by Richard II. Often did the old banqueting hall echo with the sounds of furious debate and witness the brilliant assembly of royal councils, and the prolonged feasts of the usual royal Christmas entertainments.
Stilled was the sound of gaiety when the Black Death swept through the shire, and carried off the labourers in their hovels, the nobles in their castles, and the monks in their monasteries. The harvest rotted on the ground, sheep and cattle strayed through the fields, and none were left to drive them. It was a terrible time of suffering, which gave birth to that peasant revolt, the first flames of which were kindled by a Kentish man, John Ball, the " mad priest of Kent," as Froissart calls him.
When Adam dalf and Eve span, Who was thanne a gentilman ?
was the burden of the cry which echoed through England.
HISTORIC KENT n
The first blow was struck in Kent A tax-gatherer, who had insulted a tiler's daughter, was killed by her enraged sire. The spark ignited the gunpowder, and a mighty conflagration ensued. Kentish men rushed to arms. John Ball was in prison at Canterbury. All the men of the city sympathised with the revolt. The gates were opened to the insurgents, the archbishop's palace and the castle sacked, prisoners released, and much private property seized But the story of Wat Tyler's rebellion and the peasant revolt will be told hereafter in a subsequent chapter, and need not be now repeated. One result of the agitation of the time, and of a foreign invasion more serious than usual, was the building in 1385 of the strong castle of Cowling by Lord Cobham. It was sorely needed to protect the coast, as French and Spanish foemen had sailed up the Thames, captured Gravesend, and burned and destroyed every town and village near the river bank.
With Cowling Castle is associated the name of Sir John Oldcastle, who married the granddaughter of the founder, and became Lord Cobham. He was a strong supporter of Lollardry, and the castle became the head- quarters of that fanatical sect. Here came the zealous preachers of the new doctrines, and found protection in spite of royal decrees and episcopal prohibitions, until at length the vast revolt was crushed, and the poor lord of Cowling was captured in Wales and burned in chains on Christmas Day, 1417.
The shire was prolific in revolts and risings. Another forty years passed, when Cade's rebellion broke out. The French war had ended disastrously. The close of the Hundred Years War saw England stripped of all the fair provinces in France, which English valour had held and conquered, and only Calais remained. English folk were furious, and especially the men of Kent. There was then a large manufacturing population in the shire, men who took a keen interest in the war with France, and were
12 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
disgusted at the triumph of the French. Twenty thousand men flocked to the banner of the insurgents, under the leadership of Jack Cade, who called himself Mortimer. They marched to Blackheath. The " Com- plaint of the Commons of Kent" was presented to the royal council, which contained no unreasonable demands. It was rejected, and the Kentish folk defeated the royal army in a pitched battle at Sevenoaks. On to London the victorious rebels marched, slew Lord Saye in the streets of London, a graphic picture of which deed hangs in the hall of his descendant at Broughton Castle. The council became alarmed, the " complaint " was listened to, and granted. The rebels dispersed, promises were forgotten, and Cade was killed by the sheriff ere he left the county.
Just before this time was born in Kent a remarkable man who was destined to revolutionize literature — the learned printer, William Caxton. The county may well be proud of her distinguished son. After his sojourn of thirty-five years in Flanders we see him travelling along the old Watling Street with his wains bearing his precious presses and type to Westminster, where he set up his shop, printed, traded, translated, and enjoyed the favour and patronage of the nobles and great men of the age. He loved his native shire, and spoke of " Kent in the Weald, where I doubt not is spoken as broad and rude English as in any place in England."
Henry VII. loved Kent, and frequently travelled through the fair county, as the accounts of his privy purse show. Canterbury often saw him, where he visited the shrine of Becket, and gave 6s. 8d. to a heretic whom he " converted."
At Greenwich we see rising the new royal palace erected by Henry VII. on the site of the priory once inhabited by the hero of Agincourt, and by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. This palace added new glories to
HISTORIC KENT 13
Kent Here were born Henry VIIL, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, and many other royal personages, and here Edward VI. died Kentish palaces have added much to the history of the shire. The old Greenwich palace, which witnessed many brilliant scenes of royal splendour, was pulled down by Charles II., who built a new palace, which, by the gift of Mary, the queen of William III., is now the famous hospital for seamen.
Of the dissolution of monasteries it is unnecessary to write, or of its disastrous results on the great abbeys and other religious houses, the churches and hospitals that abounded in Kent. That is a page in English history which we care not to read too often.
The ravings and imposture of Elizabeth Barton of Aldington (where, by the way, Erasmus once was vicar) contributed to increase the monarch's antipathy to monks. Styled the " Holy Maid of Kent," a subject of hysterical fits, the tool of two iniquitous clerics, Masters and Bocking, she made pretended revelations and uttered prophecies against the innovation in religion, the royal divorce, and the king. Her ravings were listened to, and the monks and priests spread the stories throughout England, and even Bishop Fisher, of Rochester, was carried away by the strange delusion. The "Holy Maid" and all her accomplices suffered the penalty of death, and, her impos- ture was exposed History tells of the shameful execution of good Bishop Fisher, which was partly caused by the wild ravings of the Kentish maid.
Henry VIIL, a Kentish man, loved the shire, and he loved one of its fairest daughters, whom we shall meet again at Hever Castle. Greenwich and Eltham frequently saw him. It was at Eltham that Cardinal Wolsey took the oath as Lord Chancellor, and here he gave the king his princely palace of Hampton Court, and here the " Statutes of Eltham " were devised for the better order- ing of the royal household Near here lived Margaret
14 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
Roper, the daughter of one of Henry's victims — Sir Thomas More.
Again in Queen Mary's reign the Kentish men were in revolt. The cause was the dread of the Spanish marriage. Sir Thomas Wyatt led the insurgents. A battle was fought at Strood between Wyatt's followers and the queen's army under the leadership of the Duke of Norfolk, when the Kentish men won, many of the trainbands of London deserting to the rebels with shouts of " A Wyatt ! A Wyatt ! We are all Englishmen." Six guns were cap- tured, and soon employed in an attack by Wyatt on his brother-in-law's castle of Cowling, which was defended by Lord Cobham from eleven o'clock in the morning until five in the afternoon ; but was at length forced to capitulate. For his unsuccessful defence Lord Cobham endured a short imprisonment in the Tower. The fate of Wyatt and his luckless followers is too well known to be here mentioned.
During the Marian persecutions many poor people suffered in Kent for the sake of their religion, and died bravely at the stake. In October, 1555, John Webbe, Gentleman, George Rober and Gregory Parke were burned at Canterbury. Two years later three men and four women suffered in the same city. Maidstone was also a place where martyrs were burned, and seven suffered there, amongst whom was Matthew Plaise, a weaver of Stone. Thornton, Bishop of Dover, and Archdeacon Harpsfield, were the chief inquisitors, and their examina- tions of the accused are set out in extenso in Foxe's Bock of Martyrs. He tells also of the narrow escapes of Thomas Christenman and William Watts, of Tunbridge, and other sad stories of that unhappy time.
The wise policy of Elizabeth and her succour of both Huguenots and Flemings, brought colonies of these dis- tressed people to Kent, and Mr. Kershaw will tell how they enriched the shire by their industries. The Cinque
HISTORIC KENT 15
Ports afforded a refuge to the victims of Alva's persecu- tions, and the sea-dogs of Kent levied heavy toll on the Spanish trading vessels in the channel. Then came that grand attempt to crush England with the Invincible Armada, and when " the feathers of the Spaniard were plucked one by one," as the galleons sailed the English seas, the sea-dogs of Kent had a good share in the pluck- ing, and when just across the narrow straits the great Spanish ships rested off Calais, many a Kentish man took pleasure in sending those nreships among them to com- plete the confusion of the Dons.
Of Sir Philip Sidney and other members of his illus- trious race, some account will be given later. During the Civil War Kent was very loyal to the royal cause. In the hour of gloom, when all seemed lost, and a re-action set in against Cromwell and the Parliament, Kent, with Essex and Hertford, rose in revolt in 1648 against the Puritan regime, and off the coasts the royal standard waved on the masts of the fleet. But the effort was transitory. Fairfax and his troopers proved too powerful for the hastily levied bands of insurgents, and soon the Royal Martyr was led to execution.
There were great rejoicings at Dover when Charles II. landed there in 1660, and made his triumphal progress along the old road to Whitehall. Kentish men gave a right loyal greeting, though afterwards they had cause to sigh over his dishonoured reign. The tyranny of Charles doomed to death Kent's accomplished son, Algernon Sidney, on a charge of sharing in the Rye-house Plot, and the shameful conditions of the Treaty of Dover, con- cluded at a meeting between the king and his sister Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, whereby he sold himself to the French monarch, show the extraordinary political profligacy of the age. Kentish men beheld with shame the bold mariners of Holland sail up the Thames, and the burning of the English ships of war that lay at Chatham,
1 6 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
while the king feasted with the ladies of his seraglio, and amused himself with hunting a moth about the supper table.
Kent also was concerned in the cowardly flight of James II, who fled across the Thames one dark winter's night, landed at Vauxhall, and then set out to Sheerness, where a hoy awaited to convey him to France. At Emley Ferry, near the island of Sheppey, the boat lay. The sea was rough, and the master was afraid to start. News of the king's flight spread like wildfire, producing lawlessness and misrule. The rude Kentish fishermen thought a Jesuit or some rich man was on board the craft, and fifty of them boarded her and seized the passen- gers, rudely hustling the king, and appropriating his watch and money. They conveyed him to an inn, where he was recognized. Sir Edward Hales, a Kentishman, whose home was in the neighbourhood, had accompanied the king, and he was much hated by the fisher folk, who soon set to work to pillage his house and slay his deer. The king- was respected by them, but was not allowed to depart. The Earl of Winchelsea, hearing of the king's plight, hastened to him with a number of Kentish squires, who placed him in a more convenient lodging. But the fishermen would not let him go, and guarded well his chamber. Piteously did he plead with them, but all in vain. At length a messenger was sent to the council of Lords, imploring aid. A troop of life guards was sent to release the imprisoned monarch. They found him in a pitiable state, and removed him to Rochester, and thence he returned to Whitehall. When William arrived in London, James was ordered to retire to Ham House ; he preferred Rochester, where he was permitted to go.
History tells with shame the fright and cowardice of the king, who, in spite of the advice of his friends, resolved to seek safety across the seas. That was a strange sight which was seen in the garden of the house at Rochester —
HISTORIC KENT 17
the king stealing out at midnight, attended by Berwick, to the banks of the Medway, where a small skiff was waiting to take him to the Thames. There he boarded a smack, and was soon on the way to France, much to the joy of the Prince of Orange and his party. It was an ignominious end to an inglorious reign.
Since that period Kent does not appear to occupy a prominent place in the nation's history. The men of Kent still showed their independent spirit and fondness of rioting at the end of the eighteenth, and at the begin- ning of the nineteenth century. At Maidstone there were riots in 1798 in connection with the trial of Arthur O'Connor, and forty years later the Bough ton riots took place, headed by a fanatic named Thorns, who was shot dead by the military.
In the days of the smugglers the men of Kent were not behind their neighbours of Sussex in the fearlessness of their ways in running contraband goods, and in their conflicts with the revenue officers.
When the great Napoleon threatened England, Kentish men were alert and vigorous in preparing to resist the invasion, and along the coast arose martello towers, which were erected to defend our English shores. In the old castle of Walmer, built by Henry VIII., the official residence of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, passed away Napoleon's most powerful enemy, the great Duke of Wellington.
Of the gallant sons and great men of Kent I have no need to write. Their names are recorded in many a page of history, and revered by their descendants. In this brief survey of Kentish history I have attempted to record only those great events which connected the shire with our national annals, and to show the important part which the men of Kent have played in the making of English history. Brave, sturdy, independent, they have left their mark on the character of our English race. C
1 8 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
Kent's geographical position has forced it into special prominence, and in the Garden of England have bloomed many precious flowers of chivalry and knightly prowess, of brave deeds and patient suffering, which have helped to form the garland of England's glory.
ST. AUGUSTINE'S ABBEY CANTERBURY
BY SEBASTIAN EVANS, JUN.
HE early history of this great mitred Abbey may be said to begin with the arrival, in the year 597, of the small band of missionaries headed by Augustine, a monk of St. Andrew's at Rome, sent by Pope Gregory to preach the Christian faith to Pagan Saxondom.
Ethelbert, King of Kent at the time, had received Augustine and his monks with great favour, had himself been baptised, and had placed at the disposal of the missionary an old Roman temple on the site of which was founded Christ Church.
Whether because there was not sufficient accommoda- tion at Christ Church for his monks, whether he desired to separate them from the secular clergy, or whether, as now generally seems to be accepted, burial was not allowed within the city, Augustine prevailed on Ethelbert to grant him a site outside the walls that he might found a monastery which should serve as a burial place for himself, for the Kings of Kent, and his successors. On this site, therefore, outside the walls, and about midway between Christ Church and St. Martin's Church, was founded in the year 598 the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, but not until the year 613 was it consecrated by Archbishop Laurence, and the body of Augustine, which had lain since the time of his death in 605 outside the
19
20 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
Church, was translated to his appointed burial place in the north porch.
In the porch and church were also buried the bodies of nine succeeding archbishops : — Laurence, Mellitus, Justus, Honorius, Deusdedit, Theodore, Brihtwald, Tatwine, and Nothelm.
On the death of Cuthbert, the tenth Archbishop, how- ever, a dispensation was obtained from the Pope, and leave from the King also, whereby burial for himself and his successors was allowed in his own Cathedral of Christ Church. Thus early was this monastery, always jealous and a rival of the great neighbouring establishment at Christ Church, robbed of one of its most cherished privileges.
The twelfth archbishop, Janbert, was buried in the Chapter House of the Monastery, by his own directions, probably owing to the fact that he had been abbot before he was appointed archbishop ; but he was the last arch- bishop buried at St. Augustine's.
Of the kings and queens of Kent buried here may be mentioned Ethelbert and his queen Bertha ; Eadbald, the successor of Ethelbert, and his queen Emma ; and the kings Erconbert, Lothaire, and Withred. Mulus, a strange king, was also buried here. All these were most probably laid in the south porch.
Ethelbert had royally endowed the monastery, and from the first it had been the recipient of charters, privi- leges, gifts of land, and other advantages, granted by successive Saxon kings; and it obtained also great and unusual privileges from the See of Rome. The most noteworthy of these latter was the great Privilegium of St. Augustine. It is given at length by William Thorne in his history of the monastery. The purport of this " Privilege " was to exempt the monastery from episcopal control, and though in the quarrels between the arch- bishops and abbots it played an important part, there is but little doubt that this document was spurious, and the
ETHELBERT'S TOWER, ST. AUGUSTINE'S MONASTERY, CANTERBURY.
(From an Old Engraving.}
ST. AUGUSTINE'S ABBEY, CANTERBURY 21
product of a much later date. Not only did the monastery continue to receive endowments and gifts from the Saxon kings, but Canute, the Danish monarch, was a great bene- factor to it, and it steadily advanced in splendour and stateliness until at one time it was the most opulent and important of any in the Kingdom.
After the death of Ethelbert in 616, the crown reverted to his son Eadbald, who was a pagan, and the new Christianity was in danger of total extinction until Archbishop Laurence succeeded in convincing Eadbald of the error of his ways.
The story is given by Bede that the archbishop, who intended seeking safety in flight, repaired to St. Augus- tine's, and ordered his bed to be prepared for the night in the church, and that on his falling asleep St. Peter appeared to him and scourged him for his cowardice. In the morning, instead of continuing his intended flight, he sought an interview with Eadbald, explained his dream, and showed him the marks of the scourging, whereupon Eadbald was convinced of the truth of Christianity, and allowed himself to be baptised. However little we may believe of such a story, it is certain that Eadbald, in the grounds of the monastery, just to the east of the Abbey Church, founded and built the Church of the Virgin, which was consecrated in or about the year 618.
The first four abbots were companions of Augustine, Peter being the first, who was said to have been drowned in the Bay of Amflete on his return from France, whither he had been sent on a mission by the king.
After the death of the sixth abbot, Nathaniel, in 667, Hasted tells us there was a " vacancy " of two years, taking his information from Bede and Thorne ; but Gervase, a monk of Christ Church, mentions that Archbishop Theo- dore appointed Benedict Biscop as abbot. Whether he was ever abbot or not — and some modern writers are inclined to agree with Gervase — there was an interval altogether of four years before the appointment of Adrian, a native
22 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
of Africa, in 671. Thorne speaks of him as "over- shadowing all others by the brilliance of his knowledge and understanding." For a considerable period he was the companion of Archbishop Theodore, and assisted him in his work of organizing the Christian Church in England. He ruled the monastery for thirty-nine years, and died in the year 708.
His successor, Albinus, was the first English abbot of St. Augustine's, and a pupil of Adrian. It is to him, per- haps, that we owe most of our knowledge of early English Church History, as Bede tells us that it was chiefly through the persuasion of Albinus that he undertook his Ecclesiastical History, and from him he received his information as to what transpired in Kent and the adjacent counties.
Albinus died in 732, and according to Thorne was buried in Eadbald's Church of St. Mary, close to his predecessor Adrian.
Very little is heard of the monastery for a period of about two hundred years beyond the gifts of various manors. The abbot was said to have been granted leave by Athelstan to coin money, but it does not seem clear in what reign this privilege was granted. Thorne mentions that it ceased at the death of Abbot Sylvester in 1161, and merely says that several of his predecessors enjoyed the privilege.
In 955 there is another bull from a pope, John XIIL, whereby he takes the monastery under his own protection, and grants it exemption from the intermediate power of the archbishop. This would seem to have been hardly necessary if the monastery already possessed the "privi- legium of St. Augustine."
During the next sixty or seventy years the abbey must have suffered in some measure from the frequent and serious incursions of the Danes. Three or four times was the city of Canterbury attacked and plundered, and it seems hardly likely that St. Augustine's, outside the walls
ST. AUGUSTINE'S ABBEY, CANTERBURY 23
of the city, should have entirely escaped. The fourth time, during the abbacy of Elmer, in the year 1011, the whole city was burnt, and even the cathedral did not escape. St. Augustine's, however, was again immune from the attack, and the historian of the abbey — Thorne — has ascribed the fact to a miracle. One of the Danes was said to have seized the valuable covering that he found on the tomb of St. Augustine. On his endeavouring to hide it, it stuck to his fingers, and he could not get rid of it, which, when his fellows saw, they were so terrified that they desisted from their pillage.
A far more likely story is that Elmer paid heavy ransom for his monastery, as we may acquit him of the charge brought against him by the Saxon Chronicle of treachery, for after being made bishop of Sherburne he returned to the Abbey of St. Augustine's to die, and was buried in the Church there.
Ethelstan succeeded Elmer, and under him the monastery received one of the largest gifts in land that it ever possessed. This abbot was in high favour with King Cnut, who would have appointed him to the see of Winchester, but he refused the offer.
The convent of St. Mildred's, at Minster, had been almost destroyed by the Danes, and it was the property belonging to it, which consisted of quite half the Isle of Thanet, that was bestowed upon the monastery. The relics of St. Mildred which had been spared by the Danes were also acquired by the Abbot, and as this saint was one of the most popular in Kent, the possession of these no doubt added largely to the fame of the abbey.
Ethelstan died about the year 1047, and was succeeded by Wulfric II.
About this time the Abbey Church and monastic build- ings seem to have been in a poor state of repair, perhaps owing to some of the previous incursions of the Danes, or from the fact that the Saxon Church had now been standing some 450 years, and the other buildings only a
24 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
little shorter period, for Wulfric obtained leave from the Pope to enlarge and rebuild his church.
Towards the end of 1056 he commenced his work by pulling down the west end of Eadbald's Church of the Virgin, with a view of connecting it with the east end of the abbey church, but his work was interrupted in 1059 by his death, which was ascribed by the people to his having pulled down part of the Church of the Virgin without asking for her sanction.
His successor Egelsin does not appear to have had any hand in the rebuilding, and after quarrelling with the archbishop, and incurring the displeasure of William L, he is said to have fled to Denmark, leaving his monastery a prey to the Conqueror, who, after confiscating some of its possessions, constituted Scotland, a Norman monk, abbot in his stead.
Possibly through his friendship with Lanfranc, the archbishop, Scotland was enabled to recover some of the lost lands of the monastery, and generally to improve it. He took in hand the work of enlarging the Church, which had been begun by Wulfric, and finding all the buildings in quite a ruinous state, he also obtained permission from the Pope to pull the whole down and rebuild them entirely.
The bodies of the kings and saints were carefully removed, and the work was proceeded with, but again it was interrupted by the death of the abbot, and it was left for his successor, Abbot Wydo, to complete the work.
In the year 1091 the new church was finished, con- secrated by Archbishop Lanfranc, and the bodies of the kings and queens, and various saints, were formally trans- lated to their new resting-places. The body of Augustine, so Thorne tells us, ^was translated with the rest, but at night the abbot and some ancient monks placed the remains in a stone coffin, which was hidden " in a place in the wall under the east window." Owing to the fear of thieves, or invasion, the matter was kept secret, the hiding place was forgotten, and there the remains rested
ST. AUGUSTINE'S ABBEY, CANTERBURY 25
till discovered 130 years later by Abbot Hugh III. It is said that other relics of saints were hidden in various places, which have not been discovered.
These relics are not the only things which were lost, for it is said that the monks, who were in constant fear of pillage during the raids of the Danes, not only hid their saintly relics, but also their gold ornaments, of which they appear to have had a goodly number, and the hiding places of these were never found, owing either to the death of the monks who knew where they were or their being taken prisoners.
Wydo died in 1099 and was succeeded by Hugh de Floriac or Hugh Flory, a warrior who had been engaged in the wars of both the Conqueror and his successor, and it was on the occasion of his visiting the monastery in company with William Rufus that he first embraced the religious life, and refusing to quit the monastery, became a monk. Before his novitiate was ended Wydo died, and on the monks sending Hugh to petition the king that they might choose an abbot for themselves, the king recognized his companion of the wars, and told the monks that, novitiate though he was, he appointed him abbot, and if they did not choose to at once accept him, their monastery should be burnt to ashes. The monks sub- mitted, much to their welfare as it turned out, for Flory brought a large fortune with him, and gave many and costly ornaments to the abbey.
He built the dormitory, the ruins of which may still be seen, and which will be described later, and the chapter house, but of this there is nothing remaining, as it was pulled down and rebuilt about the year 1380.
Hugh Flory died in 1 1 24, and was buried in the chapter house which he had rebuilt.
The succeeding abbot, Hugh de Trottescliffe, owed his appointment to the fact of his having acted as chaplain to Henry L, but the archbishop flatly refused to give him the benediction in his own monastery. The abbot
26 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
appealed to the king and the pope, and in spite of the archbishop's protest, he duly received the benediction at the hands of the Bishop of Chichester. Thus began the long and costly wrangle between the abbots and the archbishops with regard to episcopal jurisdiction.
One of the chief works of this abbot was to build the Hospital of St. Lawrence as a sanatorium for the monks, and an almshouse for their relatives. He raised the number of monks to sixty, and created various offices in the monastery for the more convenient carrying out of the monastic business.
Hugh de Trottescliffe died in 1151, and was buried in the chapter house opposite to his predecessor.
The quarrel between abbot and archbishop grew acute when Sylvester, the successor of Hugh Trottescliffe, was elected. Theodore, the archbishop, refused his bene- diction, and the abbot refused the oath of obedience. The abbot went to Rome, the pope confirmed him in his office, and he returned to Canterbury with his letters from the Papal See, but it was not till after the Archbishop had delayed matters by various excuses from time to time that, on a very peremptory rescript from the pope, the abbot received the benediction. Nor was this all; the arch- bishop, highly incensed, excommunicated the whole monastery, deposed the abbot, and prohibited services in the church. Gervase says that at this time King Stephen's queen used to worship at the abbey whilst the abbey of Faversham was building, and owing to the silence imposed on the monks, she used to send for the Christ Church monks to come and worship. This may or may not be true ; Gervase, it must be remembered, was a monk of the rival establishment, and is only too ready to relate any story tending to belittle St. Augustine's.
The two historians, Thorne and Gervase, indeed are entirely at variance with regard to the history of Abbot Sylvester; the former saying that the abbot received the benediction in his own monastery, while the latter gives
ST. AUGUSTINE'S ABBEY, CANTERBURY 27
the abbot's oath of obedience at length, in which he says that he promises the archbishop " Canonical obedience in all things." This latter version is probably correct, as it is confirmed by a manuscript still in the possession of the Dean and Chapter, with the archbishop's seal attached
Sylvester died in 1161, and there is a gap of two years which is unaccounted for, as it was not till 1163 that Henry II. appointed a fugitive Norman monk named Clarembald as abbot. But this being entirely against the wishes of the convent, the monks refused to acknowledge him, would not admit him to the chapter house, or permit him to conduct services in the church. From the year 1 163 to 1173, when he was deposed, the Abbey underwent a time of serious trouble. Clarembald never received the archbishop's benediction, and never took the oath of obedience, possibly because Becket, the Archbishop, was exiled from his see at the time. Gervase tells a story that Clarembald was immediately concerned in the death of the archbishop in that the four assassins conferred with him on the morning of the murder, and perhaps this may have had something to do with Thome's assertion that this abbot was never counted in the list of abbots, for the monks of St. Augustine's would be unlikely to admit that their abbot had anything to do with the martyrdom of St. Thomas.
In 1 1 68 a grievous misfortune befel the monastery, for the greater part was destroyed by fire, and with it many of the ancient charters, deeds of gift and manu- scripts were burnt. The Church itself suffered, and the shrine of St. Augustine and those of other saints were badly damaged.
Clarembald, whether abbot or not, had the manage- ment of the finances of the abbey, which he squandered so recklessly that he left the monastery heavily in debt. Eventually the monks appealed to the pope, on the ground that "he was a bad man and had wasted the possessions of the monastery," and he was deposed, much to the
28 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
disgust of the king, who took the Abbey with all its possessions into his own keeping for the next two-and- a-half years, and it was only on the receipt of urgent letters from the pope that he recognized Roger, a monk of Christ Church, as abbot, and restored the monastery to its own.
The election of a monk of Christ Church would seem a curious policy, but this Roger was keeper of the altar in "the Martyrdom," and there being a craze for mementos of St. Thomas, it was thought by the monks of St. Augustine's that they might thus obtain some of the coveted relics, in which they were not altogether unsuccessful.
Although hailing from Christ Church, Roger showed no disposition to take the oath of obedience to the Archbishop. The matter was referred to the pope, who, after hearing Roger himself, and the emissaries of the archbishop, decided in favour of the former, and decreed, moreover, that in the future, if the archbishop refused to bestow the benediction in the abbot's own monastery, the abbot should repair to Rome and receive it from the pope himself. In 1179, accordingly, Roger received the benediction from Pope Alexander III., and though this was followed in 1182 by an agreement between the archbishop and the abbot that the former should abandon his claim to the oath of obedience, it by no means put an end to the quarrel with the various archbishops, for on the death of Roger, who had ruled for the long period of thirty-six years, his successor, Alexander, demanded benediction in his own monastery, refused the oath of obedience, and on the archbishop's refusal to comply with such terms, repaired to Rome and received benediction at the hands of Pope Innocent III.
It would be tedious to follow the trouble between the various archbishops and abbots with regard to episcopal control. In spite of protestations from the primates, the various abbots, by bribery or otherwise, obtained their
ST. AUGUSTINE'S ABBEY, CANTERBURY 29
benedictions from the pope. In 1237 Archbishop Rich brought matters to a head temporarily by an agreement which was altogether in favour of St. Augustine's. It gave the abbot the right of receiving benediction in his own monastery, it exempted him from the oath of obedience, and in return the abbot was to receive the archbishop when he came to bestow the benediction as the representative of the pope. But under successive archbishops the feud continued, and it was not until 1397 that Archbishop Arundel saw the futility of continuing the struggle against the Augustinians, whose appeals to the various Pontiffs were always successful. He therefore declared the monas- tery exempt entirely from episcopal control, and subject only to the See of Rome.
For the next one hundred years the prosperity of the monastery steadily but quietly increased, various grants of money by Adam de Kingsnoth, new buildings, new cloisters, and a new refectory being chronicled, until we come to the time of Thomas Fyndon, abbot from 1283 to 1309. He was the third prior of the monastery, and received the benediction from the Bishop of London. Under his abbacy the fortunes of the monastery may be said to have reached their highest point. The abbot was in high favour with the king, who made repeated visits to St. Augustine's ; it had the direct support of Rome, and its worldly possessions were immense. New buildings were being undertaken of all descriptions. The new kitchen, which took four years building, was finished at a cost of £414 I os., according to Thorne ; the roof of the dormitory was again "new made," and stalls were built in the choir. The abbot's chapel, a stone tower to the church — probably the central one — were built, and other buildings seem to have been completed. It was Fyndon who built the great gateway of the monastery, which has come down to us in its original state with some slight restoration of the two towers.
Thorne records that during this abbacy an enormous
30 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
feast was given to all the prelates of Kent, and to all judges and lawyers at that time on circuit. The guests num- bered some 4,500, and from the accounts of the price of the various commodities consumed, it seems to have been a considerable drain on the resources of the monastery. But it was to Abbot Fyndon's successor, Ralph de Bourne, that the credit or discredit attaches of supplying a gargantuan feast The " first " batch consisted of 6,000 persons, and Thorne gives a detailed list of the fare provided which, including as it does fifty-eight casks of beer and eleven tuns of wine, and costing the equivalent of about £7,000 of our money, can only be stigmatised as wanton waste of money, seeing that the last abbot left the monastery in a somewhat impoverished condition by his extrava- gance.
From this time the fortunes of the monastery began to decline seriously, although there were considerable bene- factions to it. In the time of this abbot, one Peter de Dene made sumptuous gifts to the monastery, among other things over one hundred vessels of silver ; and after appointing the convent his sole legatee, he was allowed to build himself a house within the monastery. For some time this curious arrangement no doubt was much to the advantage of the abbey, but Peter, whose main reason for becoming a quasi monk, and taking refuge in the abbey, was to avoid some political trouble, at length, finding that trouble overpast, was anxious once more to return to the outer world. Not being able to obtain the abbot's consent to this, his only hope lay in being able to make his escape, and with the help of his brother and the rector of St. Martin's, he actually accomplished this. But his freedom was of short duration, for after two or three days he was found by the brethren and ignominiously brought back. Peter, however, by some means or other, appealed to the pope, who requested the prior of Christ Church to enquire into the matter. The prior betook himself to St. Augustine's, but on the first day was unable to find
ST. AUGUSTINE'S ABBEY, CANTERBURY 31
his man, as the convent refused to produce him. On the morrow he took two hundred men with him, with much the same result ; and again on the third day he went, when the monks produced a man who told the prior that he was a monk, a monk he intended to remain, and that he had no wish to leave the monastery.
It seems from this story that the abbot must have been rather hard pressed for money, and having got hold of a wealthy man, he and his convent meant by hook or by crook to keep him, and no doubt the man who answered the prior of Christchurch was put up in place of the real Peter de Dene. As far as can be made out, he died at the monastery, and according to Thorne, who gives his will at length, dated 1322, it profited by the fortune he left, which included a large collection of books.
A serious loss to the abbey and to the Church generally was the passing of the Statute of Mortmain in the seventh year of Edward L, by which private persons were debarred from leaving their estates to the abbey without the special license of the king. This put a stop in a great measure to the accumulation of property by the Abbey, and though various schemes were tried, such as claiming exemption from tithes and procuring privileges, the monastery sadly missed the benefactions of the laity.
Another blow to the abbey, and one costing about £600, was a rising of tenants in the Isle of Thanet, who refused to pay their dues, and when the abbey distrained for them, about six hundred men attacked the Manor Houses at Minster and Salmeston, and did enormous damage, and the rioting was not put down without the intervention of the authorities.
Abbot Ralph de Bourne died in 1334 after ruling the monastery for twenty-five years.
The next abbot, Thomas Poncy, of Poucyn, received benediction at Avignon, at a cost to his monastery of £148, as Thorne gives it, or fully £3,000 of our money. It is possibly one of the reasons for the decline in the
32 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
finances of the monastery, and therefore of the fortunes of the abbey generally, that the various abbots had to proceed to Avignon or Rome to obtain the benediction of the popes. It will be remembered that the convent prided itself on being subservient to Rome alone, but this can hardly have been an unmixed blessing.
Between the years 1334 to 1349 Abbots Poncy, William Drulege, and John Devenisse all died, and as each had to receive the benediction from the pope, the finances of the monastery were again seriously drawn upon.
We have seen the expenses of Thomas Poncy ; those of William Drulege are not mentioned, but those of John Devenisse were serious indeed. This man was a monk of Winchester, and was elected by that convent to be their bishop. For some reason or other this was against the wishes of Edward III., and at his entreaty the pope cancelled the election, but promised Devenisse some preferment if he stayed with him. The death of William Drulege taking place at this time, the pope gave the post of abbot to him. In the meantime, however, the monks of St. Augustine's had chosen their own abbot, and both they and the king resented the pope's nomination. The result was that the king refused to restore the temporalities of the abbey to Devenisse, and he was even compelled to reside at Nackington, some two miles away. He returned to the pope at Avignon, in the hope of getting some settlement of his affairs, but died there in 1348 without being in any way successful. His expenses to the monas- tery amounted, according to Thome, to £1,000 and more ; modern equivalent about £22,000.
Thomas Colwelle, who succeeded, ruled the monastery wisely for the space of twenty-seven years, so possibly he may have retrenched a little. Thorne mentions that during this abbot's time the three bells named Austin, Mary, and Gabriel, as well as four in the tower, were cast.
The expenses of Michael Peckham, the next abbot, although spared going to Avignon for the benediction,
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amounted to no less a sum than £"1,008 133. 8d., and it was probably owing to this that the affairs of the monastery during his tenancy were in a more parlous state than ever.
The buildings of the monastery, however, were kept in repair through the generosity of the sacrist, Thomas Ickham, and the chapter house was rebuilt after lying more or less in ruins for fully fifty years. The ruins of this chapter house may still be seen, and from the style of architecture it is evident that it was built at this period, circa 1380.
The story of William Welde's accession to the abbacy is one long series of troubles and delays. Shortly after the death of Peckham he was elected by the monks* and Thorne, to whom we are almost entirely indebted for our history, was himself despatched to the pope to sue for his sanction to the election. But in spite of protestations, gifts, and various representations, it was not till thirteen months had passed that the pope considered the case, and even then cited the abbot-elect to appear before him. This again caused further delays and expenses, so that before the abbot was finally installed, a period of two years and two months had elapsed. The expenses, as may be imagined, were extortionate ; they are given at length in Thorne, and were so great and so burdensome to the monastery that the king himself was prevailed on to forego half of what was due to him.
However badly off the monastery might be, it cannot be said that Abbot Welde was niggardly in his hospi- tality, for he entertained Richard II. on the enthroniza- tion of Archbishop Arundel, and some few years before that monarch had made the abbey his resting-place with the greater part of his court.
No doubt the monastery had to pay for the kingly friendship, for Hasted tells us that on two occasions the Abbot came to the rescue when money was wanted.
Abbot Welde died on the I2th June, 1405, and with his death all detailed history of the monastery also comes D
34 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
to an end, for William Thorne, whose history takes us as far as 1397, died at about the same time.
The abbey itself does not appear to have produced any other historian of note except Thomas of Elmham, who died about 1414; but although he seems to have collected a vast amount of material, his actual history does not take us beyond the abbacy of Wydo, and the conse- cration of the Abbey Church in 1091. Goscelin, who was a monk of St. Augustine's in 1098, and wrote a life of St. Augustine, gives no detailed history of the abbey. Thorne mentions Thomas Spot or Sprott, and says that he himself is indebted to him for some of his history.
Hasted gives a list of ten more abbots, but there is not anything to note in the abbacy of any of them, until we arrive at that of John Essex, or Foche, the last abbot. He succeeded in the year 1523, and was abbot till the time of the dissolution of the abbey in the year 1538.
In the cathedral library is his register, which was kept by the precentor, William Selling, but it shows little except that the abbey was in sore straits for money, as there are items such as the sale of twenty-five pieces of plate, and the borrowing of two sums of £100 and £600, arid later on another sum of £120.
We come now to the actual dissolution of the monas- tery. Parliament, some two years before, had sanctioned the dissolution of the lesser monasteries, and three years later all those who had not voluntarily submitted were suppressed.
The deed of surrender, which is printed at length in the Decent Scriptores, is dated in the chapter house, July 3Oth, 1538, and it gives over "the abbey, the site and precinct of it, the debts, chattels and goods, manors, houses, lands, advowsons, and churches, and all other possessions whatsoever and wheresoever situated," to the king for his use and that of his heirs for ever.
This document was signed by the abbot and thirty monks, all of whom are supposed to have been pensioned.
ST. AUGUSTINE'S ABBEY, CANTERBURY 35
The names are given in Hasted's History of Kent, who remarks on the curious difference between the names of the thirty monks who signed the deed of surrender and of those who received pensions.
After the Dissolution, some of the abbey buildings were transformed into a palace for the king, more to serve as a halting-place on his way from London to the coast than as a royal residence, though Queen Elizabeth is said to have resided here in 1573 for several days, and held court.
It does not seem to have remained a royal palace for any length of time, for though, as mentioned, Elizabeth stayed here, it had been granted, some years previously, to Henry, Lord Cobham, on whose attainder it passed into the hands of Robert Cecil, and from him to Lord Wotton, whose son Thomas was in possession of it at the time of his death in 1630. His widow continued to reside here till she died in 1658. Her daughter Anne had married Sir Edward Hales, and this marriage entitled him to the estate, as she was co-heiress with her sisters to the property of Sir Thomas Wotton, and this presumably was her share, consequently the whole of the site of the monastery, as well as about one thousand acres of land adjoining, passed to the Hales family.
The property after this fell into the hands of various holders, and no doubt the whole of it became more and more ruinous and neglected, until at the beginning of the nineteenth century very little was left intact except the great gateway, which owed its existence to the fact that the large room formed a convenient vat for a local brewer. Perhaps it is as well to recall the words of Hasted in his History of Kent, who, writing in 1799, says : —
So little is the veneration paid at this time to the remains of this once sacred habitation, that the principal apartments adjoining the gate- way are converted into an alehouse, the gateway itself into a brew- house, the steam of which has defaced the beautiful paintings over it.
36 .MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
The great courtyard is turned into a bowling green, the chapel and the aisle of the church on the north side into a fives court, and the great room over the gate into a cock pit.
From this state it was rescued by the exertions of Mr. A. J. B. Beresford Hope and Dr. Edward Coleridge, who acquired the greater part of the site for the erection of the present Missionary College.
How far the old buildings were restored or adapted to their present uses is stated in a paper contributed by Mr. Beresford Hope to the fourth volume of ArcJusologia Cantiana, lest any of them should prove a " pitfall for future antiquaries."
The ruins of the eastern portion of the abbey church, the chapter house, the dormitory and infirmary stand in a field adjoining the college, and remained in private hands till the year 1900, when they were rescued chiefly by the efforts of Canon Routledge, who with Lord North- bourne, Mr. St. John Hope, and Mr. Bennett Goldney, acted as trustees for several antiquaries and friends, who subscribed for the purchase and subsequent excavation of these most interesting remains.
Part of the ruins of the chapel of St. Pancras are in the same field, and part in the field adjoining, belonging to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital. These were first taken in hand, and excavations which had been com- menced some sixteen years before by Canon Routledge, but could not be continued, owing to the churlishness of the then owner of the field, were completed. A full and interesting account of this chapel of St. Pancras has been given by Mr. W. H. St. John Hope in volume xxv. of Archceologia Cantiana.
Owing to these excavations, therefore, it was not till April, 1901, that attention was turned to the ruins of St. Augustine's, and operations were commenced under the superintendence of Canon Routledge, and the more immediate care of the present writer.
It seemed advisable to endeavour first of all to discover
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what remained of the great abbey church, so the work was begun at a point which was thought to be the extreme east end, and this turned out to be the case. At the outset rising ground to the west was encountered, but what originally appeared to be masses of fallen masonry turned out to be earth dug from the foundations of a malthouse in the neighbourhood, and shot here some twenty years before by the descendants of the same brewer who had used the great chamber of the gateway as a vat.
The excavations disclosed the foundation walls of a rectangular chapel about forty feet long and twenty-one feet wide, but this had evidently been an addition some- where about the end of the fifteenth century, and may possibly have been built by John Dygon, the last abbot but two, as his coffin was discovered in the centre of the chapel. He ruled the monastery from 1497 to 1509.
Inside this chapel, at the east end, was a fallen mass of masonry of early date, showing on both sides the face of a wall of flint and rough stone. Possibly this may have been a vestige of Eadbald's Chapel of the Virgin, which stood on or about this site.
Continuing to excavate westwards, the most interest- ing part was brought to light, this being no less than Abbot Scotland's crypt which he built about the year 1080. Professor Willis mentions that there are five eastern crypts founded before 1085, namely, Canterbury, Winchester, Gloucester, Rochester, and Worcester. To these, there- fore, must now be added St. Augustine's, the crypt under notice. It is very imperfect, all the vaulting having gone, and most of the ashlar facing from the piers and walls, but enough remains to show that Thome's description of a church on a grand scale with a crypt beneath is correct. The picture of the east end of the Norman church from Thomas of Elmham's history, which is preserved in Trinity Hall Library, Cambridge, also may be said to be fairly correct as showing the eastern apse of the church with its
38 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
three chapels. Whether the various shrines depicted are correct it is now impossible to say, as these were above ground level, and not a trace remains.
The crypt was about 71 feet long by 66J feet wide, and resembles in a marked degree that at Gloucester, which was built by Abbot Serlo at about the same date. Between the two centre piers of the apse was discovered the grave of Abbot Scotland and his coffin plate, on which was engraved : —
Anno ab incarnatione domini fnlxxxvii. Obiit Scotlandus Abbas V idus Septembris.
The central chapel leading out of the apse, the Chapel of the Virgin " in Cryptis," is in a fair state, with the remains of an altar-block in the middle. The north and south chapels leading out of the apse have their altar- blocks against the wall, and are slightly smaller than the central one.
The south transept is mostly in the grounds of the hospital, but the northern one, with an eastern apsidal chapel, has been brought to light, is of the same date as the crypt, and about three to four feet of the walls of the chapel are standing above ground level. North of this transept, and between it and the chapter house, is a vesti- bule or parlour, about 1 7 feet 6 inches square, which at one time probably formed a slype or passage leading into the monks' cemetery ; later one end was blocked up, making it into a room, and there is reason to believe that the library of the monastery was overhead. North of this again, and in the field, is the chapter house, but very little remains above ground. It was finished about 1380, and no trace of the earlier one, built by Hugh Flory about 1 120, is to be seen. Eight abbots were buried here, but none of their graves have yet been found. To the north again of the chapter house is another small chamber, with an entrance to the dormitory undercroft. To the west of this under- croft is a fine piece of Norman bench end, so that this is
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no doubt part of the dormitory also built by Flory about 1 1 20. Only the north end wall of this dormitory remains above ground ; it was one of the largest in the country, measuring 204 feet long by 44 feet wide.
All the conventual buildings of this abbey were on the north side instead of being, as is more usual, on the south ; but otherwise the arrangements corresponded with those of most Benedictine abbeys. The cloisters, built about 1276 by Nicholas Thorne, which are in very fair preservation, are to the north of the nave of the church, with the chapter house leading out of them on the east, and the refectory and kitchen, of which nothing is now left, on the north side. On the west was the abbot's lodging.
The Church had three towers, two at the western end and a central one. The latter was built in the time of Thomas Fyndon, about the year 1300, but only part of the bases of the piers are to be seen. The north-west, or Ethelbert's tower, as it was called, must have been a very fine example of late Norman work, judging from prints of the eighteenth century. It suffered at the hands of the wiseacres of the town in 1822, who had it battered down as some parts were considered unsafe!
The great gateway has already been mentioned. To the south of this were the guests' and pilgrims' buildings, which are still in a good state of preservation. They include a hall, a chapel, a kitchen, and other rooms under the hall, and were probably built by Thomas Fyndon about the end of the thirteenth century.
West of the refectory was the stone court, and bound- ing this on the west side was the abbots' great hall, of which some of the undercroft may still be seen, as the old remains have been carefully preserved and worked into the present building. It was built in the latter half of the thirteenth century. The undercroft is now used as the college museum, and the hall above as the library.
From a Cottonian manuscript in the British Museum,
40 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
"The Customary of S. Augustine's Monastery at Canter- bury," which has been transcribed for the Henry Bradshaw Society by Sir E. Maunde Thompson, we gather the valuable information as to the dimensions of the various buildings. This manuscript is supposed to have been written during the latter years of Abbot Ralph de Bourne, 1330 to 1334, who succeeded Thomas Fyndon, one of the largest builders and restorers ; so that with the exception of the chapter house the buildings should have been at that time complete and in good condition. The list is given as follows : —
Length of the church, in ulnae=333 feet.
Width of church with "chambers," 24 ulnae = 72 feet.
Width of the nave without chambers, 10^ ulnae = 34 (?) £ feet
Length of Chapter House, 29 ulnae = 87 feet.
Width of Chapter House, n ulnae=33 feet.
Length of dormitory, 68 ulnae = 204 feet.
Width of dormitory, 14 ulnae 2 feet = 44 feet.
Length of Domus Necessariorum, 64 ulnae=ig2 feet.
Width of Domus Necessariorum, 8 ulnae = 24 feet.
Length of studies, 34 ulnae and 2 feet=iO4 feet.
Width of studies, 3 ulnae and 2 feet=n feet.
Length of Refectory, 33^ ulnae=io3^ (?) feet.
Width of Refectory, 13^ ulnae = 41^ feet.
The length of the Cloister is missing, also the width, but these are respectively 1 20 feet and 115 feet.
Taking these measurements, and comparing some of them with the ruins of the present day, it will be seen that the length of the church does not include the Eastern, or Dygon's chapel, which extends about another 42 feet.
The chapter house would be the one built by Hugh Flory, as the present ruins measure three feet wider, or 36 feet, and would be that finished about 1380. There are not any remains above ground of the domus neces- sariorum, which may have been annexed to the east wall of the dormitory.
To the south-east of the abbey church, in the field belonging to the hospital, is a large mound, on which was
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ST. AUGUSTINE'S ABBEY, CANTERBURY 41
once the campanile, or bell tower, but when it was erected is not recorded — probably by one of the Norman builders, as it certainly existed before the middle of the thirteenth century. It must have fallen into disrepair, for there are numerous bequests and gifts towards the expense of rebuilding it in the latter half of the fifteenth century.
We are indebted to another manuscript in the Caius and Gonville Library, also published by the Henry Brad- shaw Society, for a description of some of the bells as they existed about the middle of the thirteenth century. There were four bells in the campanile, two larger and two smaller ; there were four, two larger and two smaller, in the tower, " ante gradus," which would probably mean the choir steps, and therefore the central tower ; and four in " the tower," probably Ethelbert's tower. There were also several named bells, but which tower they were in, or whether some of them were the same as mentioned above, it is impossible to say. There were two Absolons (major and minor), two Richards (major and minor), two " Bubanti," two Pilcheres, one Matheus, one Wulfric, one Resecodt, and " Sunesdeies belle." Thome says that Thomas Ickham, in 1358, gave three bells, Austin, Mary, and Gabriel, the latter costing 42 marks ; and before his death in 1391 he gave four bells in the choir (the tower " ante gradus "), two great bells in the campanile, and two in the tower at the end of the church. So it would seem that many of the bells mentioned about a century before had been re-cast. Two other bells were also given, one by Adam Kingesnoth and one by Abbot Peckham.
The abbey possessed three common seals, though there are originals or casts of at least another ten belonging to various abbots, priors, treasurers, etc., of the monastery. The earliest is a common seal of the abbey of the eleventh century, and represents Augustine robed in the " pallium/' half length or seated ; the figure is indistinct, and bears the inscription -. — " Sigillum Sancti Augustini Anglorum Apostoli." The second seal bears on one side the figures
42 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
and names of St. Peter and St. Paul, and the inscription : — " Hoc Sigillum factum est Anno Primo Ricardi Regis An- glorum." On the other side, Augustine is seated in a stone chair, in full archbishop's robes, and the legend reads: — " Sigill Ecclesie Sancti Augustini Cantuarie Anglorum Apostoli." Diameter 2| inches. The third seal, a large one measuring 3J inches in diameter, represents on one side what may be the abbey church and the baptism of Ethelbert, with figures of St. Peter and St. Paul under canopies above, with the legend " Sigillum Monasterii Beatorum Apostolorum Petri et Pauli Sanctique Augustini Anglorum Apostoli Cantuarie." On the other side is Augustine seated under a canopy with figures on either side of him, and the inscription " Anglia qt. Domino Fidei Sociatur amore hoc Augustino debetur patris honore."
The arms of the abbey were : — Sable ; a plain cross ; argent.
At the time of the surrender the net yearly revenue of the monastery, as given by Dugdale in his Monasticon, was only £1,274, though it possessed over 19,000 acres of land. In the year 1544 Henry VIII. acknowledges having re- ceived plate, jewels, and other ornaments, but what could have become of all the valuables which must have be- longed to such a stately and magnificent house it is hard to say. No doubt, as the funds grew smaller and smaller under the later abbots, property of all sorts was sold or given as security, but of relics of saints, of which there must have been a fine collection, no mention is made.
The library at the end of the fifteenth century consisted of 1,784 MS., according to a catalogue in the possession of Trinity College, Dublin ; but at the time of the Dissolution the number was not over 600, and of these some 150 have been traced by Dr. James as being in the hands of various public libraries and colleges.
From some minutes from the ancient records in the Chamber of Canterbury we read, under the year 1 542 :
ST. AUGUSTINE'S ABBEY, CANTERBURY 43
On the dissolution of St. Augustine's Monastery, the city are supplied with building and paving stones from its ruins, on paying a trifle to the gate keeper!
Its ruins of to-day only too well shew to what an extent quarrying operations went on. In addition to this, certain persons were granted letters patent by James I. in 1618 to search any of the dissolved abbeys for treasure supposed to have been hidden, and there is ample evidence that St. Augustine's was thoroughly searched, and the graves rifled of anything valuable.
In reviewing the history of this once magnificent abbey, it is impossible not to feel regret that the fabric of an institution, founded at the time of the revival of Christi- anity in England, should have been so ruthlessly swept away.
Pathetic indeed must have been the scene when the abbot and his companions visited for the last time the " Corpora Sanctorum," and finally handed over to the despoilers the shrines and relics of the saints, the tombs of kings, and all that they and their predecessors had held sacred for nearly a thousand years.
MEDIAEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT
BY AYMER VALLANCE
MONG other researches into the life and manners of the past, none is more engrossing than the study of mediaeval religion. Nor is it possible to form a correct picture of the appearance of a pre-Reformation church without realis- ing the most prominent features of its interior, to wit, the rood on high and the loft and screen underneath it. To piece together, then, the scattered records avail- able on this subject in respect of Kent, is to supply a neglected chapter of no mere provincial interest, but one that, since the county was, from the days of Augustine, the seat of the primatial See of English Christianity, belongs to the history of our country at large.
Wills of individuals, inventories of church goods, and churchwardens' parish accounts are, necessarily, mines of information on the subject ; but the most valuable and unimpeachable documents of all are the buildings themselves. The importance cannot be over- rated of studying at first hand the actual fabrics, all the more precious because, like the Sibylline books, they are, alas! a perpetually diminishing quantity year by year, owing to unscrupulous falsification on the part of pretended "restorers," as owing also to reckless oblitera- tion of ancient landmarks to gratify the reigning whim and fashion of the moment.
MEDLEY AL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 45
Among these the most mischievous is that of festal •" decorations." The bad taste of piling " decoration " upon what is already itself supremely ornamental might be passed over with the contempt it deserves but that it is fraught with active harm. That being so, language fails to condemn it in terms strong enough. Within living memory these temporary decorations used to occur at Christmas only ; but nowadays so favourite a pastime have they become with irresponsible ladies and curates, that they are indulged in at Easter, Ascension Day, Whitsunday, and Trinity Sunday as well, the full height of extrava- gance culminating in the autumnal orgy of the " Harvest Festival." The consequence is that screens and other ancient woodwork, which have survived the wrack of four or five centuries, are now threatened with rapid •extinction ; mediaeval mouldings and carvings — it is no .exaggeration to say it — literally bristling with nails and tin tacks, the wood itself being bruised and chipped and pierced and split in a way that no householder would dream of treating the furniture in his own private dwelling, nor suffer anyone else to treat it. It is lament- able to reflect what all this involves ; so many pairs of unskilled hands being let loose to work what damage they may with hammer and nails half a dozen times per year, year after year, to the woodwork which is the venerable heritage from our fathers. The disastrous process, if and wheresoever persisted in, can end in only one result — the disappearance from ancient churches of the inestimable treasure of their wood fittings, which, once destroyed, can never, for all time, be made the same again that they were.
But, not to anticipate, attention must briefly be directed to the genesis of the rood-screen. To go back, then, to the fourth century, when Constantine (whose mother, Helena, a consensus of tradition declares to have been of British birth) sat on the throne of the Roman Empire. Far hardly before
46 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
that date, when the fury of persecution was spent, did Christians, hiding hitherto in caves and cata- combs, feel secure enough to set apart, above ground, buildings of their own for congregational worship ; but well-nigh from that time onward may two main and broadly divergent types of church be said to have co- existed. The first is that of the Basilica, in its origin, of course, entirely Pagan ; but such that came to be adopted as present ready to hand, and also as preferable to the classic temple, because of the latter's necessary and intimate association with heathen worship. But so soon as ever the Christian religion became, so to speak, rooted in the soil and spread hither and thither, it asserted itself by evolving, out of its own necessities, a different form of building, peculiarly appropriate to its own spiritual instincts. The original type continued, while at the same time the newer, which for distinction may be denominated the mystery type, developed.
In the latter, as contrasted with the Basilican, the interior, instead of being thrown open to afford a vista from end to end, was subdivided, its sanctuary screened off by at least one partition from the western or more public portion of the building. The mystery type is of universal rule from the White Sea shore to Abyssinia, both in the Orthodox Church and in all the separated communions of the Eastern rite ; and although the same uniformity is not to be found throughout Western Chris- tendom, in our own land, at any rate, the mystery ideal prevailed during centuries prior to the Reformation. The fullest expression of the type in the West is embodied in the cruciform church, with its structurally- bounded quire ; but to this same type no less the simple parallelogram, under one continuous roof, such as is common in parts of Wales, for example, belongs, seeing that there it would always be divided athwart its length by a screen from side to side of the building.
Ecclesiastical ceremonial is so conservative a thing
MEDIAEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 47
that very often the antiquity of a usage is testified by its survival in slightly altered form ; rites now peculiar to occasions or seasons of extra solemnity having formerly been of daily occurrence. Such innovations as did from time to time gradually obtain recognition had a twofold tendency, not towards total abolition of old customs, but, on the one hand, curtailing them for practicability in ordinary workaday use, and, on the other hand, relegating them in their fulness to rarer opportunities ; at the same time attaching to them a mystical signification not originally theirs. Thus, the vesting of a priest at the altar, which must have been the general practice in old days before vestries existed, has now become stereotyped into a ceremony peculiar to a bishop when he formally pontificates. Again, to take an illustration that directly relates to the present subject, another custom, itself now extinct, but in mediaeval times of invariable observance in Western Europe, was that of completely shutting off the high altar from the nave by an enormous sheet or curtain suspended in the quire, from the first Sunday in Lent to the Thursday in Holy Week. In England this custom had become an institution at least as far back as the reign of King Alfred, who, shortly after his great victory over the Danes in the year 878, ordained a fine of one hundred and twenty shillings as the penalty for tearing down a Lenten veil in church. The bare fact of such a severely repressive measure being called for proves that a per- manent veil must have been already long since obsolete, when the temporary one could be so determinedly resented that there were persons who would not scruple to drag it down by force, unless restrained by the terrors of the law. No doubt, however, this solemn Lenten veiling represented what had been the more primitive mode of separating, all the year round, the sanctuary from the body of the church. And so, when later usage restricted the veil to Lent only, a permanent substitute, in the shape of a screen, with a door to pass through it, at the quire
48 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
or chancel entrance, still kept up the ancient tradi- tion.
From the first planting of Christianity in Kent, or even from the days of King Alfred, to the eleventh or twelfth century, leaves a long gap to fill ; but, unhappily, no authenticated specimen of a chancel-arch of pre- Norman date survives in the county. The few Norman chancel-arches yet standing show, for the most part, the straitness of access to the chancel maintained. The size of the chancel-arch is indeed a fair index of date. " Early Norman churches," says Rev. G. M. Livett, " had small arches like that remaining in West Farleigh Church " ; whereas in later Norman work the arch is of increased size. Thus, at St. Margaret's-at-Cliffe, near Dover, built probably about 1160, "the architect . . . with admirable foresight of the incoming fashion of erecting a rood at the entrance of the chancel, designed a wide-spanned and tall chancel-arch." Further examples show what developments took place and what alternatives to wooden screen-work were resorted to in the separation wall itself. At Frindsbury Church, near Rochester, is a round-headed chancel-arch, whose narrow dimensions no less than its plainness denote it to be an early Norman work. Here the solid wall-spaces to left and right of the opening have, in after times, been pierced and squints inserted, to reduce the barrier between nave and chancel. In a later and more florid example of Norman, namely, that of Barfreston Church, the chancel- arch is flanked by a lower one on either hand. These side arches are recessed, but, if at any time pierced by smaller openings, can never have been wholly open into the chancel, since the dimensions of the latter and of the nave do not correspond ; the chancel being internally 13 ft 7 in. wide, the nave 16 ft. 8 in. However, from blind arcading to pierced is only one step that would follow by easy and natural evolution. A later and very curious example of a mural screen, which seems to
MEDIAEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 49
date from about the middle of the fourteenth century, is in a church near Folkestone, Capel le Feme, where in the wall between the nave and the chancel is an open arcade of three two- centred arches, springing from octagonal shafts. The upper part of the wall is per- forated above the central arch, which is 8 ft. 6 in. high, by another, 6 ft. high by 5 ft. 6 in. wide, of depressed round-headed form. The outer order of its moulding shows traces of colour. The purpose of this opening, as Rev. G. M. Livett has pointed out, was obviously to afford a setting for the rood and its accompanying figures. The fact of a quantity of Norman material being used up with later in this arch looks as though the whole existing arrangement had immediately succeeded the original one of a Norman arch dividing nave and chancel. Four moulded stone corbels on the western face of the wall at the level of the summit of the labels of the triple arcade mark the position of the brackets that once carried the now demolished rood-loft.
Rarely though such screens as that at Capel le Feme occur, it finds in some sort a parallel in the case of Westwell Church. Of the thirteenth century, this example is of earlier style than the last named, but it was not so certainly intended for a chancel-screen. It extends from the northern to the southern arcade, and itself consists of an arcade of three trefoil-cusped arches on two cylindrical columns, 1 6 ft. 10 in. high, including the capitals. Viewed from the nave, with its pair of circular panels, one in each spandril on either side of the central arch, the crown of which is higher than the two others, the effect is that of a homogeneously designed screen ; but, from the east, the tall shafts, rising almost to the level of the spring of the groined roof, seem rather a contrivance adopted from the struc- tural necessity of helping to sustain the thrust of the heavy chalk and stone vaulting, unsoundly built, without adequate abutment for its support. That there was a E
50 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
timber rood-loft erected subsequently, and that it traversed the building from wall to wall, is proved by the entrance to the rood stair being in the wall on the north, in a line with the stone screen. It is also evident from the sawn-off stumps and traces of connecting beams inserted between the columns of the stone arcade, that the latter was at some time or other adapted to rood-screen require- ments; but whether it should be regarded as having belonged, from the outset, to the category of rood-screens is open to doubt. At the ruined church of Reculver, across the chancel opening was an arcade, if not itself Roman, at any rate on Roman foundations, which, more- over, comprised an apse. Again, at the little Romano- Saxon church of Bishop Justus and King ^thelbert, built between the years 604 and 616 at Rochester, the foundations, which lie principally beyond the area of the present Cathedral at the north-west corner, indicate that a similar colonnade stood between the body of the building and its apsidal eastern portion. The same features have been traced at Lyminge Church (founded in 633), and in the ruins of the ancient Church of St. Pancras, Canterbury. Possibly, therefore, the Westwell arrange- ment would represent rather a survival of the Basilican type, or — shall I say? — a compromise between the latter and the mystery type of Christian church. The whole subject opens up a train of interesting questions well worth investigating, and such that make the wanton destruction of Reculver Church at the hands of early nineteenth century vandals all the more deplorable as the severance of a link with the past which posterity could by no means afford to lose. The two columns from Reculver recovered, thanks mainly to the instrumentality of the late Mr. Roach Smith, were subse- quently set up in the open, hard by the north side of Canterbury Cathedral. Their face is indented with holes for the insertion of transverse bars or beams, just like the columns at Westwell. However, in any event, the
NORTHFLEET CHURCH.
DOORS REMOVED BETWEEN 1836 AND 1847 FROM THE ROOD SCREEN. After a Drawing, dated 1828, by IVil/iam Twofieny.
MEDIEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 51
instances of the peculiar structures at Reculver, Westwell, and Capel le Feme are, all three, uncommon exceptions ; nor, indeed, was it after such precedents as theirs that the development of the rood-screen proceeded. By far the more usual plan in Kentish churches, as also in fact throughout England, was that of a single chancel-arch in stone, its entrance guarded by an openwork screen in wood.
Now, whether or not the most ancient screens did consist, as it has been conjectured, of interlaced withes of wattle or trellis- work, it is not possible, at this dis- tance of time, to tell. At any rate the earliest extant instance in the country, that at Compton, Surrey, bears no trace of such origin ; but is, on the contrary, an unmistakable attempt to render in wood the salient architectural features of stone construction — the column and the arch. The county of Kent contains in situ no parish church rood-screen of an earlier date than that at Northfleet, which is of the fourteenth century. From the appearance of its lintel -beam I am disposed to believe that this was a case where the rood, instead of being placed aloft on a separate beam at a higher level than the screen, was fitted directly on to the top of the screen itself. On the other hand, from the thirteenth century fragment of carved oak beam at Doddington, it looks as though, at the church there, the rood-beam was detached and quite distinct from the structure of the screen. A painted beam, also of the thirteenth century, at Minster in Sheppey — if it was indeed the rood-beam — would seem to imply that the same arrangement existed there in the Priory Church of St. Sexburga.
But however this may have been is a detail. The one invariable object that rose conspicuous above all else, above rood-screen and above the later rood-loft also, the object from which — because of its crowning and surmounting both — both derived their name, was the great rood itself. Unless this be understood no true
52 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
conception can be formed of the aspect of a mediaeval church in England, nor will it be possible to appreciate the immense difference that the loss of the rood and its adjuncts has wrought. The date of its earliest introduc- tion belongs to the immemorial past, but countless references to it in ancient documents, and particularly in wills containing directions for the testator's body to be buried in such or such a church before the Cross, or bequests to be devoted to its service and beautifying, bear witness that, from at least the end of the fourteenth century down to the closing years of the reign of Henry VIIL, in every church or chapel in the land the rood was as indispensable almost as the font or the altar. Called by various names, such as the high cross, great cross, greatest cross, high crucifix, great crucifix, good rood, high -rood, and great rood, it always pourtrayed Christ, with outstretched hands attached to the cross, the usual accompaniments being a figure of the Blessed Virgin on the one side and of the Beloved Disciple on the other. Instances are not unknown where other figures beside were added to this group, as at Canterbury Cathedral, where there were represented on the beam some of the Heavenly Hierarchy ; and from a bequest to " the All Hallows light on the Rood-loft" at Stone, by Dartford, and another for two lights " to stand before the images of the holy Rood at Tudeley and All Hallows," the two being thus coupled together, it would seem as though at both places, Stone and Tudeley, the emblematic image of All Saints was placed on the rood-beam together with the rood itself. But normally the great crucifix stood between the Mary and John only. The scale of the figures would be determined by the dimensions of the particular building in which they were set up, but it cannot be very far wrong to assume that, except in quite small churches, they would not be under life-size. Not to be dispropor- tionate, in the case of large buildings they must have exceeded life-size.
MEDLEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 53
Occasionally, where the opening between the nave and chancel was low, as in the instance of the Norman chancel-arch at Frindsbury already referred to, the rood must have been placed over the summit of the arch, with the nave's eastern wall for background. Sometimes, again, as possibly at Fordwich, the top of the arch was boarded in and the surface so formed made a setting for the relief figures. But, beyond doubt, the preference was for detached figures, the rood, with its flanking images, reared in majestic isolation and silhouetted against only the receding perspective of the quire. So commonly, indeed, was this plan adhered to that often, in order to give effect to it, the chancel-arch was rebuilt, as in the case of Gillingham Church, on a larger scale than theretofore ; or was even done away with altogether in some churches, as at Milton by Sittingbouxne, and likewise at Rainham.
Among earlier references testamentary proof is furnished of the existence of a rood in each of the following parish churches at, or shortly after, the dates specified: — At Snargate in 1368; Cliffe-at-Hoo in 1413; Kingsdown, near Wrotham, in 1421 ; Ash next Ridley in 1423-4; Lydd in 1430; Cowling in 1434; Higham in 1441, and at Minster (Sheppey) in the same year ; Wouldham in 1442 ; Halsted, Offham, and St. Mary's, Sandwich, in 1444: all these being prior to the middle of the fifteenth century. From 1450 onwards, until the attacks on images began in 1538, mention of roods occurs with such frequency that to recapitulate here the individual cases would make an unduly long cata- logue. Of the numerous legacies on record the warding does not always make it plain whether the testator meant to provide for fresh work to be carried out, or for the upkeep of an existing rood and its votive lights. Thus, in the case already cited, of Cliffe-at-Hoo, in 1413, the rector, Nicholas de Ryssheton, makes a bequest to the images of the crucifix and Blessed Mary ever virgin
54 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
and St. John Evangelist above the loft ; in 1 499 " our lady upon the beam " at Ash next Ridley receives a bequest from William Hodsole ; and in 1523 the "good rood" at Milton by Gravesend is likewise remembered. There are, however, examples enough of explicit instruc- tions for the erection and decoration of roods. Thus, in 1441 a bequest was made for the painting of the cross (already mentioned) at Minster in Sheppey ; in 1465 towards the painting of the image of the crucifix and of the images of St. Mary and St. John in St. Margaret's Church, Rochester; in 1471 towards the painting of the crucifix at West Wickham, on condition of the work being done within a year; in 1472 for the painting of the "greatest cross" in Hythe Church; in 1491 "to the Rode werks of the Church" at Gravesend, and, in the same year, " to the reparacion and gilting of the Cross " in East Peckham Church; in 1506 "to the gilding of the image of the crucifix and of Blessed Mary and St. John Evangelist " at Brenchley ; in 1513 for the making of the image of the crucifix at Capel ; in 1517 "to bye a crucifix with a pictor of our Lord thereupon and to be set in the midst of the rood-beam " at Ryarsh ; and some time between the twenty-fifth and thirty-first years of Henry VIII. (i.e., between 1533 and 1539 — the exact date is uncertain, because the manuscript pages contain- ing the reference in the parish accounts have become displaced) the churchwardens of Hawkhurst were, at their request, refunded for the amount expended by them in the gilding of the rood "now fynyshed and donne."
The rood and its attendant images were all alike, and each individually, shrouded in solemn wise with close-drawn veils during Lent; coverings as to whose colour there does not seem to have been any uniform rule. Of the " Rode cloth for Lent," which, in the third year of Henry VIII. (1511-12), is known to have been in existence at Edenbridge, the colour is not recorded ; but at Minster in Sheppey in 1536 there were "2 Rode
si I
II
MEDLEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 55
clothes, one of crimson velvet and another of red sylke." From the general inventory taken of church goods in Kent in 1552, it appears that at that date there were several further examples, which had not been got rid of ; as, for instance, at Brabourne, where a cloth, of colour unspecified, is recorded, " that laid over the Rood " ; while amongst a set of white hangings for the rood and rood- loft at Postling, obviously the covering for the rood in Lent must be included. At the same date also was "one cloth for the Rood somtyme painted," at Downe Church ; and another, for the same purpose, of " stayned linen " at Chislehurst ; but whether the item, also at Chislehurst, of " one piece of red velvet for the Cross on Good Friday " refers to an additional cloth for the same pur- pose as the foregoing examples, I very much doubt. The Lenten covering for the great rood must not be con- founded with another object, which is among trie commonest items in lists of mediaeval church goods, to wit, the "cross cloth," seeing that it was a distinct thing and that it served a totally distinct purpose. The "cross cloth," then, also sometimes called a " banner cloth," was a flag or streamer of coloured stuff, embroidered or painted, attached to the processional cross. The custom, alluded to in the opening words of the ancient hymn, Vexilla regis prodeunty yet survives in the very conservative rites of the Dominican Order, the velum crucis varying en suite with the liturgical colour of the day. Repre- sentations of such a banner are familiar enough, it being usually pourtrayed hanging from the cross-staff held by the Agnus Dei, and in the hand of our Blessed Lord in His Resurrection
One of the strangest records, judged by modern English notions, is that which tells of a pair of silver shoes fixed to the feet of the Christ upon the rood at St. Andrew's Church, Canterbury (inventory dated 1485). But this is not without its counterpart in the image, itself a rood, though always called the Holy Face of
56 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
Lucca. It is said that to swear thereby was a favourite oath of King William Rufus; in which case the Luccan image would be at least as old as the middle of the eleventh century. Its feet are encased in silver shoes, it is said, to preserve them from being worn away by the repeated kisses of pilgrims. The crucifix at Lucca is clothed in a long robe down to the ankles; it has the head crowned with a lofty crown, and is, moreover, collared and girdled with richly-jewelled ornaments. Another phase of this kind of homage prompted the boy, St. Edmund Rich, who subsequently grew up to be, from 1234 to 1240, Archbishop of Canterbury, when at Oxford he placed a ring on the finger of Our Lady's sculptured image in the University Church. To be touched, however — as who is not ? — by this beautiful story of an undergraduate's pure devotion, is to admit the principle which underlies the one manifestation of the same instinct as also the other alike. Beside the practice of decking images with crowns and jewels, that, too, of dressing them up, even to the extent of changes of garments for festivals and ordinary days, is of no mean antiquity, and albeit frowned on in Rome itself, has continued in many places in Catholic countries down to the present time.
However, it is not often that one finds among Kentish records such explicit mention of the practice as the following bequest, dated 1523, to Rochester Cathedral: — "To the Rood at the Jesus altar, two yards of velvet, price 205., to make a garment." The inventory taken of church goods in Kent in 1552 mentions as then existing at Chilham Church a " cotte " for the rood, made of green satin of Bruges. This mantle would, of course, be forfeited under the commis- sion of i6th January, 1553, in accordance with the plan agreed upon between King Edward VI. and his council on 2 ist April of the year preceding.
Among Kentish Roods at least three had the repu- tation of wonder-working, to wit, those at Ashurst and
MEDLEY AL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 5;
Gillingham Churches, and, mare famous than either, that at the Cistercian Abbey of Boxley. Whether this last, commonly known as the Rood of Grace, was actually the High Rood itself, is not clear. The name, analogous to that of Rood of Pity, which meant what is now called a Pieta — that is, a representation of the Dead Body of Christ, laid, before the entombment, in the lap of His sorrowful Mother — possibly suggests that the Rood of Grace was not strictly a crucifix, but a figure of our Lord in some other stage or aspect of His Passion. Indeed, if Lambarde is to be taken literally, the situation of this venerated image would necessitate its being quite dis- tinct from the High Rood. In his Perambulation of Kent, Lambarde relates how the Rood of Grace was, in the first instance, brought to Boxley, a stray horse, with the crucifix tied to its back, walking into the Abbey Church and halting at a certain pillar there, whence no power availed to move the image. At the same time it must be remembered that at the date of its destruction Lambarde himself was not two years old. He had no personal knowledge, therefore, but had to rely on what he learned of the affair from others. And such was his animus that he was only too eager to retail every scrap of scurrilous gossip — the more preposterous the fable, the more effective for his purpose — that might be calculated to bring contempt and ridicule upon the practices of the old religion. Lambarde does, however, so far exonerate the monks of Boxley as to own that this mediaeval Frankenstein's creation was none of their devising, but a figment due to the ingenuity of a certain mechanic taken prisoner by the French during the wars of English aggression. Nor was it inconsistent with the temper of a people who, on a false charge, could condemn Jeanne D'Arc to be burnt alive in the holy name of religion, to be unscrupulous enough to condone other kind of fraud in things sacred. Lambarde says : —
58 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
The cunning carpenter of our country compacted of wood, wire, paste and paper, a rood of such exquisite art and excellence that it not only matched in comeliness and due proportion of the parts the best of the common sort, but in strange motion, variety of gesture, and nimbleness of joints, surpassed all other that before had been seen ; the same being able to bow down and lift up itself, to shake and stir the hands and feet, to nod the head, to roll the eyes, to wag the chaps, to bend the brows, and finally to represent to the eye both the proper motion of each member of the body, and also a lively, express and significant show of a well-contented or displeased mind ; biting the lip and gathering a frowning, froward and disdainful face when it would pretend offence ; and shewing a most mild, amiable and smiling cheer and countenance when it would seem to be well pleased.
An interesting reference to this image occurs in a letter (undated, but of some time between 1515 and October, 1529) addressed by Archbishop Warham from his manor at Otford to the Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey. Writing at the suit of the Abbot and brethren of Boxley, who were being sore pressed to pay a levy demanded of them by the Crown, the Archbishop endeavoured on their behalf to obtain from Wolsey some respite and forbearance to enable them to discharge it. " Forasmuch as the . . . place is poor and much seeking is thither to the Rood of Grace from all parts of this realm, I should be loth," says the Archbishop, " if I might choose, to interdict the place or to put the fruits of the same under sequestration." And he concludes by expressing his confidence that, if only the delay he entreats be granted, the Abbot will not fail to fulfil his obligations, "or else it were a pity that he should live much longer to the hurt of so holy a place, where so many miracles be showed." The Abbot and brethren of Boxley are known to have owed money to a predecessor of Archbishop Warham's, Cardinal Bourchier, whose will, executed three days before the testator's death at the end of March, 1486, cancels the debt and directs that the debtors' acknow- ledgment of the same be handed back to them. The above incidents combine to prove that the Rood of Grace
MEDIEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 59
cannot have been the lucrative property which its enemies made it out to be.
The will of one William Stubbs, in 1529, contains a bequest of I2d to the Rood of Grace, but whether is meant thereby the image itself at Boxley, or another one of the same style in the testator's own parish church at Borden, near Sittingbourne, is not clear from the context.
Stow's Annals record the demolition of the Rood of Grace in the year 1538. It was on Sunday, 24th Feb- ruary ; the occasion, the delivery of a sermon at Paul's Cross by John Hilsey, successor in the See of Rochester to Cardinal Fisher, victim of judicial murder in 1535. The new bishop had been selected because, as ex-prior of Dominicans, he could safely be relied on to sustain, with all the obduracy of a renegade, a policy in every way subversive of his predecessor's. Hilsey's party, then, after the Rood of Grace had been torn from Boxley, and, in the words of J. R. Green, "paraded from market to market and exhibited as a juggle before the court/' caused it finally to be brought to St. Paul's for the express purpose of giving point to the episcopal discourse. Whereupon such was his lordship's invective, and to such a pitch of ribald frenzy did he stir up the passions of the mob, that then and there they fell upon the image and broke it, nor, the preacher egging them on, did they desist until they had entirely plucked it to pieces.
The Rood of Grace appears to have been equalled very nearly by the rood at Ashurst. According to Lam- barde's account, it was reported of the latter image that it " did by certain increments continually wax and grow, as well in the bush of hair that it had on the head, as also in the length and stature of the members and body itself." Although this rood of " rare property " was, as Lambarde expressly states, no longer in existence at the date of his writing, 1570, still he records that in old time it rendered the place, else obscure, so glorious that
60 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
"many vouchsafed to bestow their labour and money upon it." In this connection may be quoted the will, dated 1524, of Sir Martin Cristofer, who, referring to Ashurst, directs " that the coat with all such brooches and rings as be thereon set before the Blessed Rood, remain during my life, and after my decease I will that they be bestowed to most honour of God and the said Rood by the discretion of Mr. William Waller and the wardens of the said church for the time being."
In contrast to the two above-named, the rood at Gillingham was, if less astounding as a portent, a medium rather of active beneficence ; and, as such, became an object of " common haunt " and pilgrimage. However, the corpse of a man unknown being washed ashore at Gillingham and buried in the churchyard there, notwith- standing Our Lady, conscious of his having died in a state of grievous sin, had already caused the body to be rejected from the precinct of her church at Chatham, brought with it so great defilement that thenceforward the Rood of Gillingham " that awhile before was busy in bestowing miracles, was now deprived of all that his former virtue . . . This tale," continues Lambarde, "received by tradition from the elders, was long since both commonly reported and faithfully credited of the vulgar sort, which, although happily, you shall not at this day learn at every man's mouth (the image being now many years since defaced) yet many of the aged number did lately remember it well."
The above words were written in 1570, by which date Queen Elizabeth having been twelve years on the throne, it is not to be supposed that any considerable number of roods had escaped the fate of the wonder-working ones. It was naturally upon these, as affording the most vulnerable point, that the onset first -commenced.
But not to anticipate, in the later middle ages, the normal setting or substructure of the rood would comprise a screen surmounted by the wide platform and gallery of
MEDIEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 61
a rood-loft. The latter extended without exception across the chancel opening, and also in a large number of churches across the entire width of the building from wall to wall. Under these circumstances the parochial church screen and loft constituted a far more imposing structure in proportion to the size of the building than the corresponding screen or screens were known to do in any cathedral church. In fact the parish church rood- loft, in as far as it fulfilled in its own person the functions of both the pulpitum and the rood-screen of monastic or cathedral interiors, became the equivalent of the two combined. Such, then, was the aspect and such the importance of the rood-loft at the final stage of its development. It would almost seem as though there were periodic impulses, fashions, waves, currents — call them what one will — which successively controlled the direction of church-furnishing liberality and trained it into this or that channel at one period, and at another period into another. Thus, in the twelfth century a Judaising movement introduced seven-branched candle- sticks, the fourteenth century is distinguished for the production of Easter sepulchres, and the fifteenth century, or rather the last half of it, for having inaugurated the rood-loft-building movement. There is no question but that lofts had been erected previously to the reign of Edward IV. ; yet it was certainly then that the greatest spread of the demand occurred, which practically trans- formed ecclesiastical interiors throughout the land, causing new lofts to be erected in all churches which had not a loft already, and, in churches which had, on a larger scale of magnificence than theretofore.
A series of bequests and other records, ranging from the early explicit mention of a " soller " for Cliffe-at-Hoo Church in 1413 down to 1521, enable the approximate dates of between twenty and thirty Kentish rood-lofts to be ascertained. It is known incidentally that the church of Kingsdown, near Wrotham, had its loft (camera crucifixi) in 1421 ; and although in the case
62 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
of some others — as, for instance, of Ruckinge, in 1480, Hadlow in 1510, and Swanscombe in 1517 — the bequest says merely "to the rood-loft," without specifying whether making or maintenance is intended, in other cases, again — e.g., those of the bequests for beam or loft- painting — it may usually be assumed that the woodwork referred to must have been some time, maybe months, maybe years, prior to directions being given for its colour decoration. Thus, at Shorne, between the date of the bequest towards the erection of the rood-loft in 1485, and its painting in 1491, is an interval of six years ; the painting of the high beam there being provided for in the meantime, in 1490. On the other hand, a bequest for the new painting of the rood-loft at Wingham in 1508 speaks of the rood-loft itself as new at that date. The date of the bequest to the rood- loft painting at Elham is 1464; Hythe, 1472; Sitting- bourne, 1473-4; and both Burham and Cowden, 1511. At Cuxton Church the painting of the rood-beam was provided for in 1503. A new loft was made for St. Mary's, Sandwich, in the year 1444 or thereabouts. In 1468 is recorded a bequest to the new seller before the crucifix at Cudham Church; in 1471 towards making the rood-loft at Throwley ; and another in the same year for the same purpose at Frindsbury, followed two years later by another bequest to the making of the new beam there. A testator making a bequest "to the new work of the rood-loft in the two aisles" of Ashford Church in 1472, it is evident that the principal or central section of the loft there had been already provided for, if not actually erected and in regular use. A bequest in 1521 " to the making of the Rood-loft at the North Door " at West Wickham, probably refers to a similar extension of an existing loft across the north aisle there. In the case of six other churches explicit bequests were made toward the work of rood-loft making: thus, Murston in 1473; Westerham in 1474, "ad operacionem de Rood
MEDLEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 63
loft"; and Seal in 1492. As for Higham, in 1500, a bequest runs : " I will that the masters of the work of the rood-loft have 20 shillings towards the edifying of the same " ; and a benefactor of St. Nicholas', Rochester, in 1 502, by will leaves a like sum " to the making of the rood-loft according to the patron " (pattern) " of Richard Sutton there." At Tunbridge Church either procrastina- tion on the part of the authorities, or some other obstacle, appears to have hindered unduly the erection of a rood- loft — at least, so one would be led to suppose from the phrasing of two bequests towards this purpose. In 1483 one, John Byschop, senior, leaves 33, 4d. to the work of the rood-loft in Tunbridge Church " when they make it"; and on 6th April five years later, i.e., in 1488, John Fane, another testator, more peremptory than the former, leaves " 10 marks to the structure of the rood- loft thereof, on condition that the churchwardens build it within two years." Not that this was an altogether unprecedented stipulation, only, in this case, taken together with the previous testator, Byschop's, direction, it seems to acquire extra significance. On the other hand, that must have been an early loft which, in Stone (by Faver- sham) Church (itself now in ruins), had already come to require repairing in 1474. The same remark applies to the " seller of the Holy Cross " at Yalding ; towards the repair thereof a benefactor made a bequest in 1496. So, again, must the rood-loft in Eastry Church have been of considerable age by 1511, seeing that at Archbishop Warham's visitation in that year it was found to have fallen, owing to neglect, into so serious a condition of disrepair that the churchwardens, as responsible for the scandal, were peremptorily ordered to amend it before the next Christmas, under pain of excommunication. Another incident of the Archbishop's visitation was that the churchwardens of Hartlip presented one John Adowne as owing £6 to the painting of the rood-loft in their parish church. The churchwardens' accounts of
64 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
Smarden Church show that 1508 was the date of the rood-loft being erected there.
And now as to structure and plan. I have already remarked on the fact of early wood screens imitating the appearance of stone masonry. Nor was it otherwise with the later screens. To the last they always reflected the architectural style of the period. But, underlying the outer ornament, the fundamental construction was of the soundest and most severely workmanlike — genuine timber framing of oak or chestnut, joined and held together by wooden pins or trenails ; while braces in pairs, meeting together at the upper extremities, form the arches of the open fenestration. Each of these arches, or bays, is subdivided into vertical lights by moulded mullions, or muntins, which are grooved from the top downward to the level of the springing. And into these grooves are fitted panels of pierced and cusped ornament, constituting by a combination of very simple units in each bay the appearance of a Gothic traceried window, with batement lights in the head. The dignified severity of design, as exemplified in the Eastchurch and Hernhill screens, and as contrasted with the vivacious changefulness of pattern in that at Stalisfield, is of itself sufficient to prove the late date of the last-named example. There must be a difference of some sixty or seventy years between the respective types. In some cases miniature embattled transoms, introduced into the heads of the fenestration, render one of the most notably English characteristics of Perpendicular. The variation of the positions of the transom alone is an important factor in the general composition. Thus, in the fifteenth century screen at Eastchurch (see illustration) the transom makes a single horizontal line right across the screen from north to south. This monotony is avoided in the later and more developed design of Shoreham screen, by the simple resource of breaking the transom into steps (see illustra- tion). The same device is to be seen in the very handsome
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MEDIEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 65
panelling (unhappily out of its proper position) at Lydd Church. Another device is to give the transom an oblique slope, like an obtuse chevron, upward to the centre line of each bay, as at Boughton under Blean and at Stalisfield (see illustration) ; a still further variety being obtained, as at Hackington, by making the lower extremity of each gradient terminate in an arc. In Kent the pierced tracery in the openings of screen-work, intended, of course, to be looked at from either side, is almost invariably treated on the obverse and reverse alike. The only exception I have found occurs in the southern portion of the screen at Appledore, which (see left hand of illustration) has just such a flat and unfinished appearance on its eastward face as one would see in Midland screen-work. The lower part of a typical Kentish screen from the cill to the ground (the average height being about four feet) generally consists of rectagonal panels with cusped and traceried ornament inserted in the heads. Along the rail or along the foot of the panelling, sometimes both, a band of geometrical carving runs, formed usually of a series of quatrefoils within circles, squares, or lozenges. In a line with the moulded styles, which separate and frame the panels below, the minor muntins run up above the rail, and meeting the braces are mortised into them. The principal muntins are solid posts in equal lengths, supporting the massive lintel, which is very commonly cut into at the top for housing the transverse joists of the platform of the loft. These floor-joists are sturdy, cubical timbers that have no need, like the narrow slabs of to-day, to be held in position by herringboning. Corresponding in form with the braces which keep the posts and lintel together, other braces, starting from the uprights at right angles to the line of the screen, serve to support the overhanging floor, and also as a frame- work for the wooden vaulting to be attached to, itself copied from the groining or fan-tracery of stonework. F
66 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
Structurally this system of superficial vaulting is a feature to which exception might be taken, but so rich and handsome is the effect it produces that its inherent weakness is readily overlooked. The original wooden vaulting is complete in the screens at Shoreham and at Lullingstone ; that at Hackington is a modern restora- tion, well done, but unsatisfactory, because it does not project nearly far enough eastward and westward From the screens in Boughton under Blean, Eastchurch, Herne, Stalisneld, and Tong Churches the vaulting is lost. There is another and plainer type, the rectagonal screen, to which those at Appledore, Bapchild, Chislehurst, Gillingham, Harty, Minster in Sheppey, Newenden, West Wickham and Wrotham belong. In such cases a cove would form the only visible connection between the screen and the loft over it ; for their system of rectagonal compartments does not admit of vaulting. In no case of arched openings would the intermediate spandrils ever have shown, being entirely masked behind the projecting vaulting. Therefore wherever the original vaulting has perished it is no reconstruction, but an absolute stultification of the whole of the authentic part that does remain to fill in the empty spandrils with ornamental pierced tracery, or to produce the moulding or boutel on the face of the upright posts above the point of the springing in a vertical line to the top. Both these mistakes have, I regret to note, been made in the so- called " restoration " of the fine screen at Stalisneld Church.
And next, as to the upper part of rood-screens above the lintel. The ends of the joists were not exposed dentil-wise, but mortised or housed in the breast- summer and encased in a broad and manifold series of parallel mouldings and carved insertion bands about the breast-summer. The latter, because it has come to be, since the removal of the parapet, the uppermost residuary portion of the structure, is commonly spoken of as the
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MEDIEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 67
cornice, which, of course, in strict accuracy, it is not. And here, not to generalise without sufficient warrant, I am reduced to describing the particular instance of Shoreham screen, because, though far from complete, it happens to have been less mutilated than any other of the kind remaining in the county. The handsome modern rood-screen in Rodmersham Church embodies some fragments of the original breast-summer ornaments, made up into a cornice, but the new work, as a whole, fails to reproduce the Kentish type ; while the sixteenth century screen at Lullingstone, complete all but the loft, is purely exotic. To those who are acquainted with the rood-lofts and screenwork of other parts of the country there is nothing unfamiliar about the beautiful band of vine ornament filling the alternate trough and swell of a wave-line, neither about the narrower strip of conven- tional Tudor leafage ; both of which favourite motifs occur in the breast-summer decorations of the Shoreham screen. But what does seem to me to be a distinguishing feature of the composition is the relative proportion of carved ornaments and of simple horizontal mouldings, the latter notably preponderating. And herein, to my mind, consists the high aesthetic quality of this particular rood-screen. The small amount of enrichment, as compared with the largeness of the space occupied by plain, straight lines, is, I take it, not a matter of accident, but, on the contrary, of deliberate purpose in the setting out of the design. The carving is not in excess of what is required to relieve and embellish the horizontal mouldings ; the latter are just dominant enough to set off to most telling advantage the grace and delicacy of the sculptured bands. That these mo-re elaborate portions may be appraised at their full and proper value the best possible foil is afforded in the severity and reticence of the rest. The whole expanse is so broad that, had it been too much covered with carved ornament, the effect would have been that of overloading and fulsomeness;
68 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
had there been all straight mouldings, on the other hand, monotony. The method of dealing with the insertion band is one admirably suited to the material. The carving itself is executed, not on a flat plane, but on the convex face of a segment-shaped slip. This, being pierced as well as modelled, was then fitted into the grooved edges of a corresponding concave space. The contrasted effect of light and shadow produced by the piercings and the dark hollow behind them is the same as that of deep undercutting in stone.
As to the fashioning of the galleries or lofts them- selves, any peculiarity of form and detail that may have distinguished those in Kentish parish churches is now practically a lost secret, on account of the scantiness of the clues available. The height of the parapet of the rood-loft might, of course, have varied somewhat with individual circumstances; but, anyhow, it would have to be such as to afford adequate protection to its occupants, and avoid the risk, on all ordinary occasions, of their slipping over the edge and falling to the ground below. A remnant of a loft parapet in the shape of a narrow scrap of oak, 28| inches high, preserved, I know not by what happy chance, projects from the surface of the south wall in St. Alphege's, Canterbury, opposite to the rood-stair there. Battered and broken as this fragment is, on examination can be discerned signs of a late-Gothic buttress ornament on the front of a style, which has a chamfered edge like a framing to sunk panel-work. That such a scheme of decoration as this may have been adopted for other rood-lofts, and even further elaborated with carved niches or tabernacle work, seems to be implied in the case of Smarden by an entry in the inventory taken of church goods there on 1 1 th December in the sixth year of Edward VI. Brenchley Church rood- loft is said to have been handsome, to judge by the sculptured pieces of woodwork, free and vigorous in execution, remaining there in 1880; the upper rail
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MEDIEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 69
" ornamented with carved work of scrolls and figures, supporting a panel in which is to be seen the date A.D. 1536" — a remarkably late example. From the entry al-ready quoted, and from others analogous, it would appear to have been the practice in the reign of Edward VI. to deface the too attractive beauty of rood- lofts with a coating of uniform paint or whitewash, texts being substituted for the imagery and illuminated legends of former days. This is known to have been done in the case of the rood-loft at Faversham, as well as at Smarden, the expenses of the operation being actually met by the sale of other of the church's property — candlesticks in the first case and a chalice in the second — a proceeding that scarcely differs in kind from the forbidden inhumanity of seething a kid in its own mother's milk. At Godmersham, as recorded in 1552, a painter was employed to paint the rood-loft all over for the purpose of defacing it. As for Smarden, as though this treatment was not deemed to have produced a result drab and depressing enough, the whole structure of the rood-loft was hidden bodily under a bare sheet, with no ornament except the Royal Arms displayed upon it. This Puritan cloke is not to be confounded with the veil which, in bygone Catholic times, was always employed during the penitential season of Lent to cover up rood- lofts, eminently belonging as they did to the same category of ornamental objects as pictures and images. Thus, in 1547, in the first year of Edward VI. nineteen ells of white cloth, which had hitherto served for the above purpose in Smarden Church, being then no longer required, were sold by the churchwardens. " Three white hangings for the -rood and rood-loft," still remaining at Postling in 1552 (one linen hanging of the rood-loft being mentioned as already stolen when the church there was broken into and robbed previously to the above date), were probably the suit of veils or shrouds for Lenten use. The rood-loft's Lent covering is again
70 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
entirely distinct from the textile decoration, in dyed or painted canvas, which in a number of churches where the loft itself was only a plain and unadorned structure, hung thereon as a permanency for enhancing the ornamental appearance of the same. An interesting example of this occurs in an inventory taken in 1485 of the church goods in St. Andrew's, Canterbury, to wit, " Item i steyned cloth hanging afore the rodeloft with the byrth of Cryst," that is to say, with a representation of the Nativity painted upon it. Inventories and old documents are not always as lucid on the subject as they might be ; but there is no mistaking the " staynyd clothe for the rode lofte" at St. Dunstan's, Canterbury, in 1500; nor that which stretched along the entire length of the rood-loft's frontage, from end to end, at Minster in Sheppey in 1536; nor the elaborate votive hanging at Ashurst in 1524, before mentioned, as being decorations of the same character. The particular occasion of " one honest drapery " (jpannus — the same word as that yet embodied in " counterpane ") " to hang in front of the gallery of the crucifix" in Kingsdown Church, near Wrotham, to the making of which a moderate sum was left in 1421, may have been similar; but that of " two old blue cloths of canvas for the rood loft" at Bexley in 1552 ; of two painted cloths belonging to the rood-loft, and another " upon the rood loft with Jesus" — probably the monogram of the Holy Name — "in the midst," at Lee in the same year is doubtful. Neither is the identification of some other items of "cloths before the Rood" absolutely certain. An inventory of church goods at Edenbridge in 1511-12 mentions, apart from, and in addition to, the rood-cloth for Lent, "a cloth to hang before the Roode." Now, whatever the last named may mean in this case, it is clearly not the same as the veil of the rood itself. I am inclined, therefore, to suppose that on the analogy of a light before the rood, i.e., in the presence of the rood,
MEDIEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 71
so too a cloth before the rood must not be identified with the shroud of the crucifix, but with the hanging attached at the foot of the rood (whether during Lent or other seasons) to the coping of the rood-loft and suspended therefrom over the gallery front. If this be correct, then there is little difficulty in assigning the cloths so named to the respective category of the rood- loft's covering for Lent, or, in default of explicit statement to the contrary, for decorative use during the remainder of the ecclesiastical year. Thus, among the possessions of St. Andrew's, Canterbury, in 1485, occurs the item of a "lynnen cloth to hang afore the crosse in the forechirche " (nave) " tempore X Lme," that is in Quadragesima or Lent-time ; at Maidstone Church, according to an inventory of the first year of Edward VI., was " I piece of linen for Lent cloth that served before the Rood"; and at Eltham Church, in 1552, remained " i painted cloth that was wont to hang before the Rood in Lent." All three of the above were, I submit, Lenten coverings for the rood-loft ; while two more items, of the same date as the last, as follows: — "a cloth to hang before the Rood," sold already for repairs at Hayes Church, and " one stained cloth to hang before the Rood " at Shadoxhurst, have reference to hangings for the rood-loft's adornment.
Evidence is wanting that the custom prevailed to any very large extent in Kent of decorating screenwork with gold and colours. Among known exceptions it may be mentioned that the rood-loft and also the east- ward side of the pulpitum at Rochester Cathedral were painted, the former by bequest in 1 503 ; and traces of colour are to be found on the wood of the rood- screenwork at Appledore, Boughton under Blean, Brookland, Hernhill, Westwell, and Wingham ; and, if not now, until recently were also on screenwork at Maidstone, Ruckinge, and St. Laurence, Thanet. The three last examples are not indeed of screens
72 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
actually standing between the chancel and nave, but it follows that in any church where the side-screens were thus richly decorated the rood-screen itself, as paramount, would not have been outdone, nor treated in an inferior manner. The St. Laurence screenwork is unusual in Kentish examples, inasmuch as its panels exhibit remains of figure-painting. The rood-lofts which existed in the fifteenth century in Elham, Hythe, Shorne and (perhaps) Sittingbourne Churches were painted ; and so, too, in the sixteenth century, were the rood-lofts at Burham, Cowden and Hartlip. The new painting of the new rood-loft at Wingham in 1 508 ; of the " high beam " at Shorne in 1490, and of the "rood beam" at Cuxton in 1 503, were expressly provided for in wills ; and since in such documents the word " screen " is not used, but always the " rood-loft " is spoken of, it may be assumed that the two were regarded as constituting one and the same structure, and that consequently the decorative painting of the rood-loft would not be carried out to the neglect of that of the screen beneath it. The ascertained number, then, of painted screens in Kent may be put down at nineteen — to wit, those at Rochester Cathedral (2) and at Appledore, Bough ton under Blean, Brookland, Burham, Cowden, Cuxton, Elham, Hartlip, Hernhill, Hythe, Maid- stone, Ruckinge, Shorne, Sittingbourne, St. Laurence, Westwell and Wingham Churches. The parclose above referred to at Maidstone, as also that at Chislehurst, was embellished with relief encrustations in the form of stars, cast in lead (after the manner of some of the ornaments at Ranworth, Norfolk) ; but I have not met with any Kentish screen decorated with gesso modelling (such as exists at Cawston, Norfolk). Two cases, however, should be recorded, namely, those of Shoreham and Tong Churches, where certain details of the carved pattern, instead of being executed throughout in wood, like the rest of the screen, were reduplicated in casts of hard plaster, presumably original. At Shoreham these plaster portions,
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MEDIEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 73
though threatened to be replaced with new woodwork, still (April, 1906) remain ; at Tong Church they have already been supplanted.
The proportions of Kentish screens, the churches themselves not being remarkable for high pitch, are generally somewhat low and squat ; in which respect they assimilate rather to the Welsh and South-west country standard than to that of East Anglia or the Midlands.
An interesting question arises on the subject of foreign influence, and the extent to which it may, or may not, have affected the ornamentation of Kentish screens. I have noted particularly two panel-head patterns occur- ring, together or separately, at Graveney, Hackington, Headcorn and Newington (near Sittingbourne). Of these, one design is of doubtful origin ; but the other, with interpenetrating ogee arcading, blossoming into fantastic finials at the top, the sides crocketed with crockets sprouting out below, as well as above, the point of intersection, is unquestionably foreign, either Flemish, or, more likely, German. Now, the situation of all of the above places (except Headcorn) is within easy reach of a waterway: Hackington via Fordwich, on the Stour ; Graveney, close to the mouth of the Swale ; Newington, at no great distance from either Milton Creek or the Medway mouth. Whereas, in an inland screen, that at Stalisfield (see the right hand lower corner of the illustration) a clumsy copy is introduced, no doubt of native product, lacking the crisp piquancy of the foreign sculpture at Newington and of another specimen, identical in design, but of provenance unknown, in the Museum at Canterbury. What is not less significant, in the Stalisfield version, out of deference to English taste, the crockets below the point of crossing are omitted. A late version of English traditional Tudor flower ornament occurs at Shoreham, and the same pattern again, worked out almost to degeneracy, at Westwell. In both cases this design is on the rail, in both cases applied, instead of being cut
74 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
out of the solid, as it should have been, had the carving been executed on the spot, rather than brought thither in ready-made lengths. My argument, then, is that if the larger and heavier timbers were moulded and otherwise shaped and prepared, and also the joinery carried out in situ, it is practically certain that some of the smaller and more delicate ornaments, which would present but slight difficulty of transport, were executed by skilled craftsmen elsewhere. The recurrence of the same patterns in different screens shows that, unless they were the work of peregrinating carvers, it was customary to produce certain stock detail pieces in quantities, and to distribute them here and there, as occasion required, from workshops established in con- venient centres at home, like Hoode's at Faversham, Button's at Rochester, Beleme's at Canterbury, and Gyllam's at Ashford ; or even, as the un-English character of some specimens indicate, abroad.
The only instance in Kent of a screen which, though made to an Englishman's order, is patently foreign throughout its length and breadth, is the Flemish one at Lullingstone Church. Nor is it difficult to account for its presence there. The donor was Sir John Peche, squire of the place, and closely connected also with the courts of Henry VII. and VIII. during the time that a large staff, selected from the cleverest artists in Europe, were engaged on the work of the chapel wherein, at the eastern extremity of Westminster Abbey Church, King Henry VII. built himself a burial-place. Sir John, therefore, with his many opportunities, might well have met and commissioned some foreign craftsman to carry out a work required for the church at the threshold of his home.
Boughton under Blean and Herne screens contain, and, further, in the woodwork at Brenchley Church there exists, or up to 1880 yet existed, details which betray the growing influence of the Italian renaissance. Again, panelling,
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MEDIAEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 75
somewhat of Frangois Premier character, is to be seen in the south aisle at Newington, near Sittingbourne ; but whether or not it ever formed part of the rood- screen or rood-loft there is no means of knowing.
The interesting feature of stone corbels for carrying the rood-loft occur at Appledore (see illustration), Capel le Feme, Chartham and Milsted Churches. At the last- named, furthermore, as also at Eastry, Eynesford, Monkton, Postling and Selling, are other corbels for the rood-beam or the lintel of the screen. At Fordwich and Igtham Churches are remains of the oak rood-beam or screen-lintel embedded in the masonry and cut away approximately to the level of its stone or plastered surface ; while at Meopham an oak beam, or part of a beam, moulded and carved, which might originally have been the rood-beam itself, lies there under the tower of the parish church.
And now, to consider the question of the purpose and uses of the rood-loft. In support of the commonest opinion, viz., that the Gospel used to be read from the top of the loft, one unimpeachable witness is forthcoming from an incidental reference in the inventory made at the Dissolution of Wingham College in the first year of Edward VI. This document, in enumerating among other things a certain processional cross of silver-gilt, and enamelled with Mary and John, states that the ownership of it is in dispute, and then goes on to recite the circumstances. The college had had possession of the cross until the Feast of Corpus Christi, four years before, on which day " when the priest had read the Gospel in the Rood-loft!' and was returning with the said cross, the churchwarden called the clerk aside into the parish chancel, and took away the cross from the possession of the college. From that time it remained in the keeping of the parish officers, until the Feast of St. John Baptist last past (? Midsummer Day, 1547), when it was delivered into the hands of James Hales,
76 . MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
sergeant-at-law, for him to settle the point at issue impartially between the rival claimants. Both parties, however, were left in suspense, and nothing had as yet been done in the matter.
Thus, as far as concerns the Collegiate Church at Wingham, the evidence of the Gospe] being on a great festival sung from the -rood-loft is conclusive. But yet, in spite of it, the practical difficulties in the way of lofts ever having come into use generally for this or any other liturgical ceremony are enormous.
In his Acts and Monuments Fox relates how, in the last year of the reign of Queen Mary, an officious justice, named Drayner, alias Dragener, out of spite against the Rector of Smarden, bored holes in the panelling of the rood-loft there, in order that from the vantage-ground on the top, himself unseen, he could command a full view of the assembled worshippers in the nave ; and if he judged the comportment of any persons during mass- time to be unsatisfactory, he would make it the pretext to trouble and punish them very sorely. Hasted calls this a ridiculous story, but if there be any truth in it, its bearing is important on the question as to whether or not the Gospel was read from the loft, in Smarden Church, for one. The rector and Drayner were admittedly on bad terms with one another, and, there- fore, had the former had occasion, when officiating, to ascend into the loft and found the justice prowling there, he would assuredly have sent him about his business. Or, supposing, on the other hand, Drayner had chosen to delay going up into the loft until after the Gospel was over, his entering the rood-stairs must then have been in the sight of the whole congregation, and, so, putting them on their guard, would have defeated the very purpose of his tyrannical espionage. The logic of the case, then, seems to me inconsistent with a common custom of reading the Gospel from the rood-loft; nor
MEDIEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 77
indeed, is there any evidence that such a usage did exist in other than monastic and collegiate churches.
Incidentally rood-lofts were used by those whose office it was to attend to the beam-light or lights, and also perhaps for the convenient storage of ladders for enabling the rood itself to be reached for its Lenten shrouding. At Fordwich Church in 1501 a "hutch," or chest, " strongly bound with iron and a key thereto," is recorded to have been situated up in the rood-loft. At Woodhouse local tradition during the last century was that the rood-loft gallery had served for keeping the parish bows and arrows in in olden times. In the rood-loft in St. Mary's Church, Sandwich, about the middle of the fifteenth century, " we know," said the late Canon Scott Robertson, " that organs were placed, and the parish paid various sums to musical priests for playing these organs." The same authority suggested that the word "procession porch" which he found mentioned in connection with the rood-loft at St. Mary's may have meant that, to make room for these organs, the platform of the loft was widened in the middle and carried forward on supports, which would give the appearance of a porch over the entrance to the chancel. I have met with such projections at Carlisle, Chester, Hexham, Newark, and in Germany in the Dom at Halberstadt, but no feature of the sort in Kent, except in the Flemish rood screen at Lullingstone Church. Anent the " procession porch," a sidelight is obtained from another Kentish will. One, John Bokeland, in 1473 directs to be buried in Stone Church, near Dartford, before the rood, and also that his executors do pave with tiles " the procession way from the chancel door," that is, of course, the door in the rood-screen, "unto the west door." This would cover the principal section of the track of the procession, which, on Sundays and Great Feasts, preceded the Solemn Mass, and, after making the appointed round of the church, before entering the
78 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
quire at the introit, made a " station " in front of the great rood.
Unfortunately, the universal destruction of rood-lofts throughout the county has deprived one of the evidence that might have served to determine the question of their function ; but if anything may be inferred from the analogy of Welsh lofts and the local traditional use, it would seem that their main purpose was to provide accommodation, not only for musical instruments, but also for the increasing numbers of choir-singers, whose voices the development of prick-song, or part-singing, as distinguished from the more ancient plain-song, or unison, attracted to its performance. For music could not but occupy a foremost place among the arts of peace, which the nation began to find itself free to cultivate, as soon as the enjoyment of prosperous and settled times gave it a chance to recover from the paralysing shocks of the Black Death and the absorbing waste of foreign and dynastic wars.
Now, Kent having been evangelised as far back as the seventeenth century by Augustine and his fellow- missionaries from Gregory of Rome, was, as compared with many other parts of the country, not brought thus early within the Christian jurisdiction, possessed of a long-settled ecclesiastical organisation ; as witnesses the fact of its comprising, alone of the counties of mediaeval England, two bishops' seats within its borders. Its churches, of ancient foundation for the most part, had undergone repeated rebuildings and enlargements, until they had attained, so to speak, to a state of complete finality or ever the great era of rood-loft building dawned Churches erected entirely in the Perpendicular period, like that of Maidstone or Ashford, for instance, or of Eastchurch in Sheppey, are quite exceptional. But pre-Perpendicular churches, having been constructed in accord with the requirements of their own times, which were satisfied with Tood-lofts, if any, on a modest
MEDIAEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 79
scale, were not convenient for the accommodation of the structures of a later period. When, however, the demand eventually did arise, it was imperative for enormous rood-lofts to be set up somehow or other. And so, if it was too vast an undertaking that in every parish a new church should be reared from the ground on a loft- comprehending plan, the already existing buildings must perforce be altered in such wise as to take in these lofts.
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The latter alternative was in fact that which was usually adopted ; and hence a peculiar feature in a number of Kentish churches, to wit, the malformation of the eastern- most arches of the nave arcades. It was not, indeed, the only way; but, when other devices failed, needs must that recourse was had to it.
The ugly feature in question has not, it is true, escaped the notice of the observant, yet, strange to say,
8o MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
its full significance has but recently become appreciated. It was evidently lost upon the late Sir Stephen Glynne, for one. Thus, in 1859, in his notes of Biddenden Church, he says : " The arcades of the nave are early English . . . The fourth arch next the chancel is not strictly an entire arch, but three parts of a very wide one." Again, in 1871, of Lynsted Church, having mentioned its " pointed arches on tall octagonal pillars " between the nave and aisles, he remarks : " the east arch being incomplete and without respond." Again, in his account of Doddington Church, he writes : " The third arch is not wholly complete, but about three-quarters." The above extracts precisely describe the phenomenon of which, the way having been paved by the late Canon Scott Robertson in his description of Staplehurst Church in Volume IX. of Archceologia Cantiana (1874), a learned ecclesiologist, Dr. Francis Grayling, was first to arrive at the only rational and completely satisfactory solution, namely, that, wherever it occurs, the easternmost arch of the nave arcade (or of both arcades, as the case may be) has, subsequently to its original erection, been reconstructed and heightened on its eastern side, so as to make room for a rood-loft to run underneath it at right-angles, affording headway for persons to pass, unobstructed by the overhanging arch, from one part of the loft to the other. The point is explained by Dr. Grayling in an article on the old parish church of his native town of Sittingbourne, published in Volume XXIII. of Archceologia Cantiana (1898). Therein, after setting forth the successive changes that have taken place in the fabric, the writer goes on to show how, in the fifteenth century, " the eastern respond of the nave arches was on each side removed, and the arches above were rendered rampant by large fresh voussoirs cut to a different sweep." The date of this change cannot be determined exactly, but Dr. Grayling suggests, with reason, that it occurred not long previously to the year
MEDIEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 81
1473-4, when a certain testator is known to have left directions to provide for " one bastard roffe or painting the rode-loft " in Sittingbourne Church. By the way, what precisely is meant by a " bastard roof " I am not sure ; but, judging from the context, which seems to show that the testator was minded to do honour, one way or other, to the rood, I believe the reference must be to a sort of inner lining of carved or painted timber, otherwise called a " celure " or " sperver," to form a canopy of peculiar dignity over the head of the rood. If such an ornament ever did exist in Sittingbourne Church, and managed to survive so late as 1762, it must certainly have perished in the destructive conflagration on I7th July of that year. The only example I know now existing in Kent is in Rainham Church, and dates from the reign of Henry VII. During the same king's reign provision was made by will for much the same kind of canopy in another church — e.g., in 1488, " to the making of a new ceiling over the rood loft" at West Mailing. A special ceiling over the rood-loft in St. Martin's Church, New Romney, existed up to 1550, when it was removed and sold at the dismantling and razing of the building in that year.
Barely seven years after the bequest, which would seem to have contributed to leave a mark, as before described, on the fabric of Sittingbourne Church, another is on record, which, perhaps, was responsible for results more momentous in the neighbouring church of Lynsted. One, William Finch, of that parish, by will dated 1st December, 1480, directs: "Item lego versus facturam unius arche de novo faciendi in ecclesia parochiali de Lyngsted, 135-. 40?." How interesting it would have been if only William Finch had specified the exact site of his intended new arch! Lynsted Church contains no single arch that can certainly be identified as the one built in accordance with the terms of this bequest. The easternmost arch of the nave arcade on either side was G
82 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
obviously rebuilt about that time, but this makes a pair of arches, whereas the testator distinctly says one. The discrepancy could easily be accounted for if it may be assumed that the cost of the corresponding arch being rebuilt was met by other means. Anyhow, the coincidence of date is so striking that it is scarcely an over-rash surmise that the reconstruction referred to was occasioned by the arcades having to be adapted to the exigencies of a new rood-loft.
More remote from the high road than Lynsted is Doddington Church, where the distortion is accentuated by an impost on the easternmost pier of the arcade, which impost is 3 ft. loj in. higher than the level of the opposite one on the western pier of the same arch, and the imposts on both sides of the two other bays of the arcade. At Sittingbourne and Lynsted, Cranbrook and Goudhurst, there is both distortion and a rood- stair as well ; in numbers of churches a rood-stair is the sole remaining evidence of the former rood- loft, there being no distortion ; but wherever the latter does occur, whether in the one arcade in a church of nave and one aisle, or in both the arcades in a church of nave and two aisles, it affords conclusive proof that the loft formerly extended from side to side of the building. So infallible a token, indeed, this is, that, in the case of Doddington, where there is no rood- stair nor any other sign beyond the distortion of the arcade, this distortion alone is sufficient of itself to settle the fact of there having been a loft, and of its having reached right across the church, beyond all dispute. At Erith Church the distortion in the south arcade (the north 'arcade there being only a modern addition of 1877) is so exaggerated as to amount to a downright deformity. And, yet, neither in this nor in any other instance would it have shown at all as an objectionable feature, so long as the rood-loft, which was the cause of it, remained in position. It is only the removal of the latter that has
MEDIEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 83
exposed the deformity in all its uncouth nakedness ; but even so the defect is of value as a memorial of the rood-loft departed.
An alternative plan, just as effective for the purpose of a passage and far less injurious to the fabric, was to tunnel openings through the walls of the arcading ; but to do this was, of course, practicable only where the abutment onto the nave's east wall afforded space enough in the arcade's easternmost spandril. Examples of this method occur at Milton next Sittingbourne and at Rainham in the one arcade of the churches there, and in both arcades at Boughton under Blean, Dartford and Teynham Churches.
As to the approach from the floor of the church on to the top of the loft, in a great number of instances it was provided for by a flight of stone steps, rising within the hollow of the wall, sometimes enlarged into a sort of annexe for this purpose, as at Bapchild, Boughton under Blean, Eastling, Lynsted, Rainham and Westwell ; or set in a turret projecting from the outer wall of the building, as at Cranbrook, Dartford, Goudhurst, Hawkhurst, and Rodmersham. Sometimes, again, the stair-turret occupies an internal position, as at Wrotham and Hythe. The latter instance is extremely remarkable, possibly unique, since there — as Rev. T. G. Hall, formerly Vicar of Hythe, has demonstrated by careful measurements — is a tapering structure, rising above the height of the wall externally, to be capped by a conical roof, and, in fine, such that has every appear- ance of belonging to the peculiar class of Irish round towers. In that event it must have existed long before the present church into which it has been incorporated. The lower part of the tower on the outside has actually been pared down to a reduced scale and refaced with ashlar on this revised plan, in order to bring its battering outline into harmony with the vertical walls of the new surroundings. The interior then only required to be
84 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
fitted with a spiral staircase and doorways pierced in the shell to convert the whole into a rood-stair turret A notable coincidence of Hythe and Wrotham Churches is that in either case a passage branches off from the rood-stair and runs across to the opposite side in the hollow of the wall above the summit of the chancel-arch.
A further peculiarity is to be seen at Wouldham, where the rood-stair, starting in the north wall, turns south- ward and is carried on a stone bridge between two walls (not so high but that one can look over the top of them into the body of the church below) across the aisle to the north arcade wall, through which it opens into space where formerly the rood-loft used to stand.
The situation of the rood-stair is indifferently on the north or the south side ; but the entrance to it is usually from the nave or an aisle of the nave. But there are instances where, as at Cuxton, Erith, Great Chart, Herne, Meopham, Newchurch, Newington (near Sittingbourne), St. Peter's (Thanet), and Rainham, and also apparently at Appledore, the entrance led up from the east side of the boundary between nave and chancel. The openings are almost always narrow, often inconveniently so ; for they seldom exceed two feet in width ; in many cases they measure less. The jamb is not unusually provided with a couple of iron hooks or staples for hanging the door withal, but it is rare to find the original doors, or any part of them, remaining, as is the case at Shoreham. The doorway itself may be square-headed with a horizontal lintel, or it may be arched in semi-circular, two- centred (this being the commonest variety), shouldered (this being of rare occurrence, as at Rodmersham), or four- centred form. The typical doorway is remarkable only for its extreme plainness, and it seldom occurs that any example is met with which displays greater elaboration than a continuous bevel, arrested at the base by a diamond- pointed stop on either side. The rood-stair door at St. Alphege's, Canterbury, is an unusually rich example (see
MEDIEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 85
CHURCtt, CANTERflUfty- SKETCH ftHOWINQ REMAINS Of ROOD STAIR.
illustration). The head is crowned with a graceful ogee label, with finial and crockets, the lower extremities terminating in sculptured heads. The date of this work appears to be about the middle of the fifteenth century.
Churches which have no rood-loft nor vestige of ancient screen work in situ yet contain a valuable record if the rood- stair remain. The height from the ground to the cill of the upper doorway of the rood- stair is so important a detail that it may be said to supply the key of the position. For, though it is true there might have been a step up or a step down onto the loft platform from the stair-head, the tread of the opening at the top
surely brings one to within six or seven inches of the original level of the loft floor. The measure of this altitude ascertained, the rest follows. Even the spacing of the screen into bays offers no insuperable difficulty, this factor being one which is necessarily dependent on the width measures of the interior of the building.
Now, from the fact that there are churches (those of Doddington and Tong among the number) having undoubtedly at one time contained rood-lofts, but yet no discernible means of access to the same, it is evident that there must sometimes have been only wooden stairs for this purpose ; structures which, either through the perishableness of the material or through having become of no further use, on the destruction of their rood-lofts, have disappeared, leaving no record behind them. It seems to me, however, just possible that the "very
86 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
antient spiral staircase of wood," mentioned by Hasted in 1799 as being in Monkton Church in his day, may have been the original rood-staircase there, more especially as no trace whatever of a stone rood-stair, of common occurrence elsewhere in the neighbourhood, is to be found in the building. True, Hasted states that the wooden staircase was in the tower at the west end, but his words do not necessarily certify that it was fixed in that position, nor, even though fixed, that it must have belonged there. Moreover, as everybody knows, church towers not unfrequently serve as receptacles for miscellaneous lumber. From the simple fact, therefore, that Hasted thought it worth while, contrary to his wont, to chronicle the existence of such an object at all, I am inclined to suppose that it was one which, lying about in the place, and its motive open to speculation, appealed to the historian from its strangeness as a curiosity not less than from its indefinite age. I put forward these suggestions as to its identity merely for what they may be worth. Unfortunately the staircase in question at Monkton has long since ceased to exist, so that the real truth of the matter can never be ascertained now.
In Mediaeval England, as is well known, it was a recognised institution that before the great rood in every church a light or lights should be burnt, towards whose maintenance it was, among our Catholic forefathers, a common custom, and such that had not died out when the Reformation overtook it, to make presents and bequests in money and in kind. Innumerable records of such gifts exist, as the wills of individuals and the parochial accounts of churchwardens abundantly illustrate.
Sometimes these benefactions would be provided for by charges upon landed property, of which two instances will suffice. Thus, Thomas Hadlow, by his will dated 4th August, 1527, left very explicit directions for the endowment of a rood-light at Seal : —
MEDIEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 87
I bequeath a pound of wax to be thereof a taper perpetually every year to be made and to burn in the Rood-loft before the Rood. And the said taper every year to be new-made against the Eve of the Nativity of our Lord. And the same taper to be kept at the costs and charges of them which shall inherit and occupy a piece of land of 4 acres called Barneffelde. And for lack that and if it fortune that the said taper be not every year new-made that then I will the Churchwardens of Seal shall stress and strain for the said sum of money for the said taper.
Eight acres of "lands appertaining unto the Cross light" of Fordwich Church were producing in 1501 an annual income of 33. /d. towards its maintenance. Various testators would make bequests of cows, sheep, or corn for the same purpose. Thus, in 1515 a testator left a cow to find the means to maintain a light " to burn before the Rood from the second peal to Matins till High Mass be done, and from the second peal to Evensong till Evensong be done, for evermore," at Hailing ; and in 1517 another left two sheep to endow a light in perpetuity before the rood-loft at Higham. There was yet another form of offering peculiarly characteristic of the times. In order to appreciate its significance one must remember that in the long centuries during which cane-sugar was unknown in Europe (the West Indies not being discovered until 1492), the principal ingredient avail- able for sweetening purposes was honey. At the same time a constant supply of vegetable wax was in requisition for votive candles. Apiculture, then, was bound to be an industry of far greater moment to our mediaeval fore- fathers than it is with ourselves at the present day. In early parish accounts it is no uncommon circumstance to find entries of rents of wax, discharged at first, no doubt, in kind, in later days commuted to their equivalent in money, as having been paid to the churchwardens or to the guilds which attended to the light before their respective patronaJ statues. A case in point is furnished by the accounts of St. Dunstan's, Canterbury. Again, a testator in April, 1407, left to the churchwardens of Bexley all his bees, the profit arising from them to be
88 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
devoted to maintaining three wax tapers perpetually burning in the church there. True, the rood-light is not of the number specified, but, anyhow, the nature of the bequest is significant. " Church bees " were owned by the parish of Fordwich, the churchwardens' accounts in 1532 showing for how much the resultant honey was sold, while the wax, it is to be assumed, was reserved to make tapers for the church withal.
The most usual manner of setting lights before the rood appears to have been on pricket spikes in the midst of bowls or basins of latten, pewter or lead ; the bowls, as at Brookland and Chilham, being fixed in a row along the beam or top of the parapet of the loft, or sometimes, perhaps, flanking the rood, on the same beam with it. Of such bowls as many as one hundred are known to have existed at one time at Chilham, twenty at Bromley, six at Cuxton, seventeen at Eastwell, twelve at Little Chart and at Midley, four at St. Paul's, Cray, twenty- four at North Cray, and sixty at Westwell. The mention of candlesticks and stocks — that is, prickets or sockets mounted on a stem — is less common, possibly because the use of bowls was safer under the circumstances. The thirty candlesticks at Bethersden in 1552 were more probably bowls, like the preceding examples. A single candlestick, however, was provided for the rood-loft at Burham, Dartford and Ryarsh ; while at Minster in Sheppey (inventory 1536) there was "a beam candle- stick and 6 bowls of latyn to the same." A " square taper" was set before the rood at Dartford in 1530; and at the close of the previous century a " torch " was endowed for the same purpose both at Horton Kirby and at Seal.
The "rare example" of the seven metal candlesticks one reads of as remaining on the screen at Wrotham is a myth. It would be all but incredible that one solitary specimen should have survived from pre-Reformation days, but a complete set of the mystic number seven
MEDIEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 89
should not fail to arouse suspicion as being at once too happy and too conventional not to have been engineered. I found every one of the seven candlesticks, tested at close quarters, to be absolutely modern, of white deal, turned and gilt, not with leaf of gold nor anything that so much as glitters, but with dull paint of one of the cheap powder compositions advertised for simulating the effect of the precious metal.
Another plan of setting lights in front of the rood was a metal framework, called a "branch" or " herse," suspended from the nave roof. Chandeliers of this kind existed at the churches of Chislehurst, St. Dunstan's, Canterbury, and Milton by Gravesend, and at the now demolished church at Beckenham, the branch at the last-named holding five, if not more, tapers. In other places, as at Lydd and at Milton by Gravesend also, in 1531, there hung a "tryndill," or coiled length of wax taper ; and if, which I conclude, a sliding weight was attached, or some other self-acting contrivance for unwinding the end of the trendal as it was gradually consumed, the rotatory move- ment, which the name seems to imply, would be explained.
Lastly, as further bequests prove, in some churches a hanging lamp did duty before the rood. Such was the case at Ash next Wrotham, Bromley, Cowling, Elham, Hailing, Higham and Ryarsh Churches, and also, as shown by a bequest in 1499 expressly providing for oil for this purpose, at the now demolished church of Denton by Gravesend.
At the foot of the overarching rood-loft, against the screen's naveward front, it was not unusual to erect an altar or altars. Thus, reredoses, like the beautiful four- teenth century examples of stone tabernacling on either side of the chancel-arch at Smaxden ; or piscinas, conveniently situated to the southward for an altar on one side of the chancel opening, or on both sides of it, as at Cowden and Rodmersham Churches, and also at
MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
Milton (next Sittingbourne) Church, where there is a pair of four-centred window recesses, opposite to one another, low in the north and south walls, that on the south having a piscina drain in the cill ; all of these tokens in their several ways witness to the same practice.
In the last-named church, from certain in- dications found under the flooring there in 1 890, Dr. Grayling came to the conclusion that these side - altars must have been enclosed, each within chantry - screens of its own. The record
^1 I II IH H~ in I499 of a ChaPlain of
m, MM M $. the Chantry of St. Cross
in St. Mary's Church, Hoath, small as that building is, seems to imply the presence of a similar institution there also. That there was a "Cross altar" in the parish church of Strood is proved by the bequest of a towel for its use in
MILTON CHURCH, NEAR SITTINGBOURNE. T493 5 and likewise, at
West Mailing, a testator,
Sketch of South-East Corner of the
Nave, showing South Wall beyond. ln I529, bequeathing
" half my diaper cloth to
the Roode altar " there. An altar under the rood-loft at Gillingham is known to have existed in 1525, and similarly at Cuxton, from a bequest " to the reparacion of the Rood altar" there being made in 1529. Some, if not all of the above, may have been, like that at Hoath, endowed foundations. But, whether or not, all
MEDIAEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 91
must eventually have shared the common fate of rood- lights and of the roods themselves.
Of the authoritative blows levelled in the Reforma- tion against the usages of the old religion, the first that struck roods was the Royal Injunction, exhibited in 1538, which ordered that all such feigned images as were known to be abused of pilgrimages and offerings must, for the avoiding of idolatry, forthwith be taken down without delay. Henry VIII. himself went no further in this direction, but a series of injunctions and enactments in the reigns of his two Protestant children left no loop- hole of escape from the logical issue of that which he began. No sooner had Edward VI. succeeded to the throne than there was re-issued, in stronger terms, his father's injunction against images, ordering the destruc- tion of as many as were liable to abuse, and, as for the rest, which were suffered for the time being to remain, undermining the principle of their devotional use by bidding the clergy instruct the people that any images permitted were meant for the sole purpose of a reminder of the holy lives of the individuals whom they represented.
However, these half-measures failed altogether to satisfy Archbishop Cranmer, who, laying aside the mask which prudence had compelled him to wear as long as Henry VIII. lived, in an inflammatory speech in Convocation, in the November following the child-king's accession, exhorted the clergy " to throw out all the Popish trash which was not yet cast out." Moreover, as was but natural, much disputing accompanied the taking down of images, for no sort of unanimity could be arrived at as to which had been idolatrously abused and which had not. The simplest course was indis- criminate condemnation of all images alike. And this shortly was done, for on 2ist February, 1547-8, an Order in Council decreed the removal of every image without exception, and Cranmer had the gratification of being specially charged to look to it that his own diocese was so
92 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
thoroughly purged as to become, in this regard, the model for all other diocesans to emulate. Accordingly, in his Visitation in the ensuing summer he made rigorous inquiry of his clergy on this particular point. The destruction of roods went on apace all that year, until, by about November, as the Chronicles of the Grey Friars of London record, there " was pullyd downe throrrow all the kynges domynion in every churche alle Roddes with alle images, and every precher preched in their sermons agayne all images." In the room of the crucifix with the statues of Mary and John thus overthrown, the agents of King Edward VI, in his name, commanded to be set up on or above the rood-loft the Royal Arms, to signify his supreme headship over the church of the realm; king's visitors being sent on a tour of inspection from parish to parish so as to ascertain that the order had been duly obeyed. But even the before-mentioned mandates do not appear to have been thorough enough in operation to please the authorities, for in 1 548 further steps were taken in the form of an Act passed "for abolishing and putting away divers books and images." From its relentless and inquisitorial tone it would seem that certain images were discovered not to have been destroyed, but to have been conveyed out of the churches to places of temporary safety. Thither, however, the new Act would have them traced and drag them forth to share in the common destruction meted out to all such images as theretofore had not been taken out of any church or chapel. The conse- quence of all this iconoclasm would necessarily be to leave no ancient rood standing throughout the county at the death of Edward VI. and the accession of Queen Mary.
Upon Edward's decease a Catholic reaction took place, the formal restoration of the old religion and a solemn reconciliation, by Papal absolution, of the church and people of England to the unity which the Queen's
MEDIEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 93
father had broken. " Likewise the cardinal " (i.e., Pole), it has been related, "caused Dr. Story to visit every parish and see the rood-lofts supplied, the crucifixes to be placed with the images of our Blessed Lady and St. John, the one on the right hand and the other on the left, and the King's arms with a lion on the one side and a dragon on the other side to be removed . . . and set in a place more convenient." Archbishop Pole's Visitation Articles, dated 1557, contain the inquiry to be made of the beneficed clergy in the archdiocese of Canterbury as to " whether they have a rood in their church of a decent stature, with Mary and John and an image of the patron of the same church." In the same year it is on record that one, Gyllam, of Ashford, supplied a fresh crucifix with the statues of Mary and John, as well as one of the patron saint, for the church at Bethersden. At this period also a new rood was erected to replace the one destroyed in Smarden and Hawkhurst Churches. But it is easier to pull down than to build up again. The brief duration of Mary's rule, from 1553 to 1558, could not suffice to repair the wholesale destruction of her brother's reign, and an uninterrupted spell of Protestant ascendancy, from the accession of Queen Elizabeth onwards, empowered the reform party to renew and to complete the work of iconoclasm.
At the end of June, 1559, was revived by injunction the previous order against images. Nay, where Edward's ministers had been content to forbear, the new Queen did not spare. It may be wondered at that those who acted in the name of Edward VI. had left anything on which subsequent iconoclasm could lay hands. And yet there is one consideration which must have had not a little weight. The life of the young King, sickly in body as he was morbid and over-wrought in mind, can never have been otherwise than precarious. The more far-seeing, therefore, among his advisers
94 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
either dared not or cared not to commit themselves to such militant extremes as must irretrievably prejudice them in the eyes of the heir to the throne. For the Princess Mary, on her part, made no secret of her unshaken adherence to the old religion. If a compromise, then, was adopted under Edward VI, and if it proceeded less from inclination than from policy, yet the net result was that, while roods were swept away, rood-lofts were saved and remained intact until the accession of Queen Elizabeth. It was under her, and not sooner, that the removal of rood-lofts was decreed, and her nominees, the Protestant Archbishops, Parker and Grindal, were instant in carrying the order into effect. So thorough, indeed, was the archiepiscopal zeal in this regard that, although a certain number of rood-lofts did manage to evade the extreme penalty of the law in various other parts of the country, in the metropolitan's own archdiocese, and, in fact, throughout all Kent, with the two exceptions of the pulpitum in Canterbury Cathedral, and likewise that at Rochester, not one solitary example of a mediaeval loft has survived.
At the archdeacon's visitation in 1560 the church- wardens of Biddenden, Bishopsbourne, Brenzett, Faver- sham, Goudhurst and Sandhurst presented that, contrary to law, the rood-lofts still remained in their respective parish churches. If from this it is to be inferred that the six complained of, and a seventh and eighth which, from other sources, are known to have been in existence at this date at St. Dunstan's, Canterbury, and at West- well, were the only parish church lofts then left standing in the diocese, it does but prove with what untiring energy the Protestant Queen, since she came to the throne just two years previously, had been served. For, although it is often stated by her apologists that personally she was in favour of the retention of such ornaments, for instance, as the crucifix, in her official
MEDIEVAL ROOD-LOFTS AND SCREENS IN KENT 95
capacity Elizabeth unquestionably played into the hands of the less moderate reformers.
In the second year of the Queen's reign, through her Royal Commissioners was issued a decree "that the rood-lofts as yet being at that day aforesaid untransposed, shall be so altered that the upper parts of the same, with the soller, be quite taken down unto the upper parts of the vaults, by putting some convenient crest upon the said beam towards the church, leaving the situation of the seats, as well in the choir as in the church, as heretofore hath been used." The terms of this ordinance are worthy of most careful attention, and will probably surprise anyone who is not previously acquainted with them. To remove a chancel-screen and quire-stalls, including return-stalls with their backs against the screen, where they happened to be in that position, was thus constituted an act of illegality, and such it still remains. What actually was commanded to be taken down, and no more, was the gallery parapet above the platform, " unto," but not including, " the vaulting." The latter was to be preserved, with the whole of the rest of the screen, from the breast-summer at the base of the gallery downward to the floor. By way of mitigating the bare and novel unsightliness of a screen deprived of its crowning balcony, the upper edge was to be finished off with an added cresting, or, as it is technically called, brattishing. These measures, literally carried out, would produce an effect which, howsoever sadly inferior to that of former times, was yet very far removed from that of the average church at the present day. It was, in fact, precisely that which may yet be seen in two neighbouring churches — Shoreham and Lullingstone. These two buildings, although in the latter instance the cresting is absent, retain their ancient screen- work in a greater degree of completeness than do any other parish churches in the county. But Shoreham and Lullingstone, alas! are fortunate exceptions only.
96 MEMORIALS OF OLD KENT
Contrasted with these, in by far the greatest proportion of cases the practical result of the ordinance was some- thing much more drastic. For, in any event, the act of demolition, even on the limited scale required by law, could not but be attended with considerable risk to the sacred fabrics. Playing with edged tools is proverbially a dangerous game, and, licence once granted and the lust of destruction aroused, it was not in human nature to draw nice distinctions between one degree of sacrilege and another. Nor, although wanton outrages had become, since Elizabeth's accession, so frequent and scandalous that it was neccessary to safeguard, by proclamation in 1560, statues of Royal personages, stained glass, tombs, and other monuments, does any effective provision appear to have been made for the protection of church screen- work by restraining such acts of violence and excess as, in the execution of the edict against rood-lofts, must inevitably be committed. Nay, it is likely enough that such were the very contingencies that the Queen's wily ministers foresaw and desired. If this was, indeed, the consummation they had in view, after having drafted the ordinance accordingly, nothing more remained for them to do but to sit down, and, tongue in cheek, await the accomplishment of their designs.
This is not to say that every single screen which has — like those, for instance, at Boughton under Blean, Eastchurch, Tong, and Stalisneld — been deprived of its original vaulting, necessarily lost it at that particular juncture ; but then was certainly the beginning of ruin. For it stands to reason that, the structure once tampered with in one point, other parts, too, and more particularly the complicated system of wooden groins and vaults, would become so broken and dislocated that their final disintegration and removal would be only a matter of time. As far as Archbishop Parker himself was concerned, it is but due to give him the credit of having been sincerely desirous to adhere
EASTCHURCH, SHEPPEY.
DETAIL OF OAK ROOD SCREEN, FROM THE WEST. ( The cornice and cresting are modern?)
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to the letter of his instructions. It is a fact that, on the occasion of his diocesan Visitations, he made explicit inquiries on this head. In the Articles of the Visitation of 1569, conducted by Richard Rogers, Bishop of Dover, and two other commissioners acting on the Archbishop's behalf, the latter, after asking whether images and all other monuments of idolatry and superstition — such was the language which even the soberest among the reformers used in reference to the rood and other objects that generations of their fathers had dearly venerated — were destroyed and abolished ; next, put the pertinent questions whether the old rood-lofts had been taken down, as prescribed, and whether at the same time the chancel-screens had been preserved. Again, as to these two last points, Archbishop Grindal, Parker's successor, took steps in 1576 to satisfy himself in respect of the whole of the southern province.
If the former part of the ordinance, then, was universally complied with throughout Kent, the latter part has been almost as generally disregarded. An entry of the year 1574 in the parish accounts of Hawkhurst Church shows that at that date "the partition of the chancel " was made lower and the timber that was taken down sold by the churchwardens. If this refers, as I suspect, to the chancel-screen, it would indicate the spread of further innovating tendencies. In numbers of churches the rood-screens are found to have been sawn off through the principal muntins, on a level with the cill, and only the solid part below the opening spared. Cut down screens, or portions of them, yet remain at, among other places, Biddenden, Brookland, Doddington, Faversham, Goudhurst, Headcorn, Ivychurch, Lynsted, Minster in Sheppey, Smarden, Teynham, Westwell and Wingham. Although this list is no doubt capable of being considerably enlarged, the truth remains that the majority of Kentish churches contain no vestiges of ancient screenwork at all at the H
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present day. Yet, as late as 1719, Dr. Harris declared the rood-loft to be standing in Westwell Church, when his work about Kent was published. One after another screens have been mutilated or been removed, without a shadow of legal authorisa- tion, and that, too, in numbers of cases — with shame be it- said! — no longer ago than in the age of the vainglorious enlightenment of the nineteenth century. Thus are accounted for the whole or the best portions of the chancel-screens now vanished from Cowden, Dartford, Erith, Farningham, Gillingham, Goodnestone by Wingham, Minster in Sheppey, Oare and Wingham Churches ; while others have been, not less arbitrarily, removed from their proper site in Challock, Cobham, Great Mongeham, Iwade and Swanscombe Churches. The screen-shifting at Great Mongeham was effected at the "restoration," begun in 1851, by an architect of repute, Butterfield by name. It should rather have been Wyatt, who shuffled the pieces in Salisbury Cathedral. At Newington and Milton Churches, both near Sittingbourne, as well as at Aylesford, Cuxton, Newenden, Ruckinge and Wood- church, portions of the original screenwork have been egregiously worked up into seats, reredoses, pulpits, or reading-desks. On the occasion of the Kent Archaeo- logical Society's visit to Cliffe-at-Hoo Church in 1876, the cleric in charge observed, " The remains of the ancient rood screen have been preserved as well as they could be, and only stay where they are until they can be replaced by a new screen, which could be done for about £80, sufficient of the original being left to serve as a guide for reconstruction." The idea of exchanging a priceless and historic heirloom of the church for a modern counterfeit, valued at a paltry sum of eighty pounds, is so monstrous and grotesque that one might be amused at it but for the fatal consequences which such misconceptions entail. Against vandalism of this
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sort there is no safeguard but that of placing all ancient churches on the footing of National Monuments, their furniture, fittings, and other ancient contents scheduled, with a heavy penalty enforced — attached merely it will be of no use — for the misplacement and " restoring " away of them under any pretext whatsoever.
The churchwardens' accounts of St. Dunstan's with- out the Westgate, Canterbury, from 1484 to 1580 (published in Volumes XVI. and XVII. of Archceologia Cantiana}, afford the outline of a fairly continuous record of the fortunes of the parish church during an eventful period of close upon a century. The interest of this document consists not so much in the actual chronicle of events, confined within the limited area of a single parish, as because it may be regarded as typical of hundreds of other similar records, no longer in existence. For the present purpose it is not necessary to abstract more than those entries which concern the rood-light and the rood-loft.
To commence, then, with the light. An account, under the date 1486, rendered by the " Wardens of the Crosse lygthe," shows that, as their name implies, for keeping up the light that always burned before the rood, officers were expressly appointed, being authorised to collect and to disburse all funds raised for this object. As regards the wardenship, it appears from an entry of the following year, 1487, and of the successive years, wherein the same two office-holders' names recur up to 1490, that, unlike churchwardens, they were not elected annually, but for a term of three or four years. Their accounts were rendered with tolerable regularity up to 1545, which is the date of the last item relating to this matter, on the very eve of the Edwardian Reformation. Sometimes the receipts were of the nature of individual offerings, as when, in the Michaelmas account from 1525 to 1526, the gift of 2d. is registered "for two penny tapers before the Rode"; or when, again, between 1538
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and 1540, one, Walter Ledes, made a "special gift" of i s. " towards the croslight." Sometimes they took the form of grants or subscriptions from the parish board, or guild, of the Schaft. This term, not being met with elsewhere, has presented some difficulty. There can, however, be little doubt but that (on the analogy of the official title of " Gold Stick" or " Black Rod ") the members of this body were collectively so called in allusion to one of the most obvious of their manifold duties, to wit, the charge of the parish shaft or may-pole. (For illustration the origin of the name of the London City Church of St. Andrew's Undershaft will readily be called to mind.) But that the before-named were not the only sources of the rood- light revenue is proved by other entries variously phrased, from time to time, as " due to the crosse," and " her lakkith the receitis of the rodelought (or ' Rode Lygth ') mony," beside specific mention, in this connec- tion, of " allowances " and " rentalls." Thus, under the head of rents in 1490 — " in primis, resseyuid of the Vycary for the Croste, 2s." From the same year's accounts it appears that six tenements in the place were held under an obligation of " wax rents," fixed at so many pounds of wax, or their equivalent in money, to be paid to the Church of St. Dunstan's. Further entries manifest the careful economy exercised in dealing with this prized commodity. The swalings and stump ends of wax " spared of the branch before the Rode " would periodically be gathered up, and after having been weighed and a memorandum of the quantity duly entered in the wardens' books, handed to the wax-chandler (whose business should not be confused with that of tallow- chandler) to melt down and re-make, who, in his turn, delivered the tapers " newe strekyn," together with a statement of his charge for the work done and of the cost of the additional wax supplied. The latest of these accounts is dated 5th April, 1545, when 35 Ibs. of old wax and of new 15 Ibs. at 6d. per Ib. were made into
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tapers weighing 2 Ib. apiece, whereof the apportioned value of 8s. lid. was debited to the rood-light fund. By this date, it should be remembered, all other lights in churches had been proscribed, except those which were burnt ceremonially in service-time, annually at the Easter Sepulchre, and perennially before the Reserved Sacrament. Thenceforward, touching the light that had been, from time immemorial, sedulously kept burning before the rood at St. Dunstan's, nothing but ominous silence prevails in the accounts.
And now, as regards expenses under the other head. In 1498 was bought one pennyworth of Sandwich cord for the cloth before the rood, while, from an inventory taken of the church's goods in 1550, it appears that St. Dunstan's possessed " a staynyd clothe for the rode lofte." The next time Sandwich cord was purchased (somewhere between 1504 and 1508) it cost fourpence, and was explicitly stated to be " for to pulle uppe the Cloth before the Rode on Palme Sonday." A like sum again was spent, between Michaelmas, 1508 and 1514, for cords for the rood-loft. The next entry in relation to the loft would seem to imply that the woodwork was getting out of repair. For, between Michaelmas, 1524, and Michaelmas, 1525, nails and "prigs," that is the same as sprigs or pins, were purchased for the rood-loft, and an additional small sum spent on mending the Cross itself. The next item is : " For the leddyng of the newe wyndow ayen the Rode, 55." Similarly a testator left a sum of money in 1525 towards the making of the window before the