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XX.—A critical examination of the Armorial Bearings and Decorations on the ceiling of the Monks' Choir in the abbey church of St. Alban

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2012

J.G. Waller
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Extract

Every visitor to the abbey church of St. Alban must be struck by the more than usual quantity of armorial display; and especially that of the transepts and monks' choir. During the restoration under the late Sir George Gilbert Scott it was discovered that the painting on the ceiling of the monks' choir, a very rough production of the seventeenth century, covered an older work, which was very skilfully disclosed by peeling off the more recent film, under the auspices of Mr. Chapple, Sir Gilbert Scott's clerk of the works. The work was then carefully restored by, as far as possible, following the lines indicated. On the whole, one must concede that the result is as successful as one could expect, though there may be some lapses.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , 1888 , pp. 427 - 446
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1888

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References

page 427 note a The numerous escutcheons of arms on the ceilings of the transepts have now been entirely destroyed during Lord Grimthorpe's so-called “restorations.

page 429 note a Of the popular worship amongst us so few traces now remain anywhere that it may be well if I here record what is but hardly effaced of the reverence for St. Edmund at Hoxne, the place assigned to his martyrdom. At the entrance of the village over a shallow brook was a picturesque wooden footbridge, under which it was said that king Edmund concealed himself after his defeat by the Danes. A bridal party passing ovei it saw the glittering of his golden spurs in the water; the bride uttered an exclamation, which discovered his retreat: he was taken, tied to an oak, and shot to death with arrows. He cursed the bridge, and all who should pass over it to or from the church in marriage; and such was the awe amongst the peasantry that they would rather go miles round than cross it under the conditions. Even in the case of funerals there was sometimes the same objection. Being there a few years ago, I was curious to learn if the feeling still remained; for the bridge no longer exists, having been supplanted by one of brick, which carries the road across the stream. The vicar, the late Rev. E. Paget, inquiring of an old resident, told me that there had been a very recent instance of a party declining to cross. The old oak, which, I remember at my first visit, seemed as if it had seen a thousand winters, fell down from decay a few years since, and in cutting it up an arrow-head was found embedded in it.

page 429 note b Our sovereigns were said to use the crown and sceptre of St. Edward at their coronation, and this is especially mentioned at that of Henry VI.

page 430 note a Lives of the Saints. Alban Butler. Oct. 20.

page 430 note b Selection from the Minor Poems of Dan John Lydgate, edited by James Orchard Halliwell, Esq. F.R.S. &c. Percy Society. 1840.

page 430 note c Fabyan's cronycle. Prentyd at London by Wyllyam Rastett, 1513, ff. clxxxvi b, clxxxiiii.

page 431 note a Amongst the casts of seals in the possession of the Society, which by the assiduity of Mr. W. H. St. John Hope were arranged for the illustration of my subject, was one which antedates this. It is that of Peter, fifth son of St. Louis, earl of Alencon and Chartres, 1271. It represents a knight on a horse, whose housings are richly semee of fleurs-de-lis; but the heater shield which he carries bears three fleurs-de-lis only within a bordure. This is the more interesting as the date is only a year after the death of St. Louis.

page 432 note a Les drapeaux français. Étude Mstorique par Le Gomte L. de Bouillc, &c. Paris. Libraire Militaire de S. Dumaine. 1875. Pp. 34—41.

page 432 note b The field is generally or, it is argent here in error.

page 432 note c Archaeologia, xxxix.

page 433 note a The roll temp. Henry III., Archaeologia, xxxix., gives these arms, but I am ignorant whether the Greek emperors bore them; but if so, they must have been adopted from the Latin. The counter seal of Philip son of Baldwin II. has the ancient blazon, with legend: , Also: . Vide Genealogia Comitum Flandriae; auctore Olivario Uredio, p. 28. Brugis Flandrorum 1642.

page 433 note b Vide Ducange, lib. viii.

page 433 note c Constantinople was taken by Mahomet II. May 20, 1453, after fifty-three days’ siege.

page 434 note a Barnes in his History of Edward III. tells us that the arms of England were originally borne in the first and fourth quarters.

page 434 note b Vide, Journal of the British Archceological Association, vol. xxxiv. pp. 22–27Google Scholar.

page 435 note a Vide, Sacristy, vol. iii. pp. 330, 331Google Scholar.

page 436 note a In the Roll of Arms of the thirteenth century, Archaeologia, xxxix. 380Google Scholar, the arms of Portugal are given as: “Gulez poudre turells d'or un labell d'azure,” but these must certainly be erroneous. The arms are elsewhere recorded as: “D'argent a cinq ecussons d'azur posez en croix, chacun charge de cinq bezans d'argent mis en sautoir et aiant un point de sable au milieu. L'histoire attribue l'institution de ces armes a la devotion d'Alphonse I. a l'honneur des cinq plais du sauveur lorsqu'il eut a combattre les Maures en 1139, dont il dent cinq de leur Eois en bataille rangee.” This account, likq many others of the kind, must be dismissed from sober armorial history. It is as a prophecy after the fact. The seal of Denis, king of Portugal, in the Soubise Charters, date 1356, shows a knight on horseback, with both shield and housings emblazoned similarly, and the escucheons have ten plates instead of five, and arranged 3, 2, 3, 2. It is probable that at a later date the number was reduced to five, by the law so often observed of not crowding the field. The number of castles on the border is not. definite, but constantly varies, and it is obvious such was unimportant in ancient blazon.

page 437 note a Vide History of the Swedes. By Eric Gustave Geijer. Translated, with Notes, &c. by J. H. Turner, Esq. M.A. London. Whitaker and Co. Pp. 61, 62, of first portion.

page 437 note b In the roll the arms arc given thus: Denmark, “D'or un beauff gnlez;” Norway, “Gulez nn chivall d'or selle.” Again we go to the evidence of seals, that of Denmark 1456, which gives the arms as on the ceiling. They are also justified by other authorities.

page 437 note c Differently given in the roll temp. Henry III. Archaeologia. xxxix.

page 438 note a Neither Mr. Boutell nor Mr. Ridgway Lloyd seem to have comprehended this subject. Vide, Journal of British Archaeological Association, vol. xxxiv. pp. 22–27Google Scholar. Also see a Paper read before the St. Alban's Architectural and Archaelogical Society on the paintings on the choir ceiling by the latter. Mr. W. H. St. John Hope has pointed out to me the interesting fact, that the seal of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, circa 1352, gives this subject in association with the “shield of faith” and “of salvation,” shewing that the connection was not unfamiliar to ecclesiastical art, It is probably the earliest instance of the appearance of these shields.

page 439 note a The omitted versicles are:

Te martyrum candidates: laudat exercitus.

Te per orbem terrarum: sancta confitetur Ecclesia.

Patrom immensae majestatis.

page 439 note b She was daughter of Philip le Bel, king of France, by Joan, daughter and heir of Henry I. king of Navarre. Married to Edward II. Jan. 28, 1307, died May 22, 1357. Her seal has England, Old France, Navarre, and Champagne.

page 440 note a Isabel, daughter of Charles V. king of France, married to Richard II. in 1386, has on her seal the arms usually borne by her husband, viz. Edward the Confessor, and (Old) Trance and England quarterly, impaling France, semec of fleurs-de-lis.

page 440 note b This assumption was founded on his marriage with the daughter of John of Brienne, titular king of Jerusalem and emperor of Constantinople. Vide Gianonne, Storia di Napoli, tom. ii. lib. xvi.

page 442 note a Differently blazoned in the Roll temp. Henry III. Archaeologies, xxxix.

page 442 note b Gianonne, Storia di Napoli, enters fully into the history and pretensions of the House of Anjou, &c. The Emperor Sigismund visited England, and was received in London by the citizens in 1416.

page 443 note a Let it be noted that the ribbon-formed letter occurs on the tomb of Abbot Wheathampstead very prominently.