Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Hereford Part 8

EARLY ENGLISH WINDOW MOULDING.

Originally there were other representations of St. Ethelbert: on the tombs of Bishops Cantilupe and Mayo, Dean Frowcester, Archdeacon Rudhale, Praecentor Porter; in colour on the walls of the chapter-house and the tomb of Joanna de Kilpec; in ancient gla.s.s, recently restored, in a window in the south aisle of the choir; and in a stone-carving over the door of the Bishop's Cloister, and the effigy formerly on the west front.

Opposite the throne a slab of marble, from designs by Scott, marks the spot, as far as it is known, where Ethelbert was buried.

*The Choir-stalls* are largely ancient, belonging to the Decorated period.

They have good canopy work, and are otherwise excellent in detail. Some of the _misereres_ are quaint, among them being found several examples of the curiously secular subjects chosen for this purpose by the wood-carvers of the period.

In addition to the bishop's throne, which is of the fourteenth century, there is, on the north side of the sacrarium, a very old episcopal chair, concerning which a tradition remains that King Stephen sat in it when he visited Hereford. Be this as it may, the Hereford chair is undoubtedly of very great antiquity, and belongs to, or at least is similar to, the earliest kind of furniture used in this country. The dimensions of the chair are-height, 3 feet 9 inches; breadth, 33 inches; front to back, 22 inches. The entire chair is formed of 53 pieces, without including the seat of two boards and the two small circular heads in front.

Traces of ancient colour-vermilion and gold-may still be seen in several of the narrow bands: a complete list of other painted work which has been recorded or still exists in the cathedral has been compiled by Mr C. E.

Keyser.(6)

*The Cathedral Library.*-The Archive Chamber, on the Library. This room, which has been restored by Sir G. G. Scott, is now approached by a winding stone staircase.

In earlier times access was only obtainable either by a draw-bridge or some other movable appliance crossing the great north window. The Library (which Botfield(7) calls "a most excellent specimen of a genuine monastic library") contains about 2000 volumes, including many rare and interesting ma.n.u.scripts, most of which are still chained to the shelves. Every chain is from 3 to 4 feet long, with a ring at each end and a swivel in the middle. The rings are strung on iron rods secured by metal-work at one end of the bookcase. There are in this chamber eighty capacious oak cupboards, which contain the whole of the deeds and doc.u.ments belonging to the Dean and Chapter, the acc.u.mulation of eight centuries.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE REREDOS.]

THE REREDOS.

_Photochrom Co., Ld., Photo._

Among the most remarkable printed books are:-A series of Bibles, 1480 to 1690; Caxton's _Legenda Aurea_, 1483; Higden's _Polychronicon_, by Caxton, 1495; Lyndewode, _Super Const.i.tutiones Provinciales,_ 1475; Nonius Marcellus, _De proprietate sermonum_, 1476, printed at Venice by Nicolas Jenson; and the _Nuremberg Chronicle_, completed July 1493. Of the ma.n.u.scripts, the most interesting is an ancient _Antiphonarium_, containing the old "Hereford Use." One of the doc.u.ments attached to this volume states: "The Dean and Chapter of Hereford purchased this book of Mr William Hawes at the price of twelve guineas. It was bought by him some years since at a book-stall in Drury Lane, London, and attracted his notice from the quant.i.ty of music which appeared interspersed in it."

The date of the writing is probably about 1270, the obit of Peter de Aquablanca being entered in the Kalendar in the hand of the original scribe and the following obit in another hand.

The oldest of all the treasures preserved at Hereford Cathedral, being certainly one thousand years old at least, is a Latin version of the Four Gospels written in Anglo-Saxon characters.

The Rev. F. Havergal thus describes it: "This MS. is written on stout vellum, and measures about 9 x 7 inches. It consists of 135 leaves. Three coloured t.i.tles remain, those to the Gospels of St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. John. Two illuminated leaves are missing-those that would follow folio 1 and folio 59. With the exception of these two lacunae, the MS. contains the whole of the Four Gospels.

No exact date can be a.s.signed, but several eminent authorities agree that it is the work of the eighth or ninth century.

It does not exactly accord with any of the other well-known MS. of that period, having a peculiar character of its own.

From the evidence of the materials it would appear to have been written in the country, probably in Mercia, and not at any of the great monasteries.

The text of this MS. is ante-Hieronymian, and offers a valuable example of the Irish (or British) recension of the original African text. Thus it has a large proportion of readings in common with the Cambridge Gospels, St.

Chad's Gospels, the Rushworth Gospels, and the Book of Deir.

On the concluding leaves of this volume there is an entry of a deed in Anglo-Saxon made in the reign of Canute, of which the following is a translation:-

"Note of a Shire-mote held at aegelnoth's Stone in Herefordshire in the reign of King c.n.u.t, at which were present the Bishop Athelstan, the Sheriff Bruning, and aegelgeard of Frome, and Leofrine of Frome, and G.o.dric of Stoke, and all the thanes in Herefordshire. At which a.s.sembly Edwine, son of Enneawne, complained against his mother concerning certain lands at Welintone and Cyrdesley. The bishop asked who should answer for the mother, which Thurcyl the White proffered to do if he knew the cause of accusation.

"Then they chose three thanes and sent to the mother to ask her what the cause of complaint was. Then she declared that she had no land that pertained in ought to her son, and was very angry with him, and calling Leoflda, her relative, she, in presence of the thanes, bequeathed to her after her own death all her lands, money, clothes, and property, and desired them to inform the Shire-mote of her bequest, and desire them to witness it. They did so; after which Thurcyl the White (who was husband of Leoflda) stood up, and requested the thanes to deliver free (or clean) to his wife all the lands that had been bequeathed to her, and they so did.

And after this Thurcyl rode to St. Ethelbert's Minster, and by leave and witness of all the folk caused the transaction to be recorded in a book of the Gospels."

*An Ancient Cha.s.se or Reliquary* is shown among the treasures of the cathedral, which was looked upon for a long time as a representation of the murder of St. Ethelbert, but this is only an example of the many traditional tales which modern study and research are compelled to discard. It undoubtedly represents the martyrdom of St. Thomas of Canterbury. On the lower part is the murder; on the upper, the entombment of the saint, very similar in style to the later Limoges work of the thirteenth century.

The Rev. Francis Havergal gives a detailed description, which we have condensed to the following:-

This reliquary consists of oak, perfectly sound, covered with copper plates overlaid with Limoges enamel. It is 8-1/4 inches high, 7 long and 3-1/2 broad. The back opens on hinges and fastens with a lock and key, and the upper part sloped so as to form an acutely-pointed roof; above this is a ridge-piece; the whole rests on four square feet. Front of Shrine:-Here are two compartments; the lower one shows on the right side an altar, of which the south end faces the spectator; it is supported on four legs and has an antependium. Upon the altar stands a plain cross on a pyramidal base, and in front of it a chalice covered with a paten. Before, or technically speaking, in the midst of the altar stands a bishop celebrating ma.s.s, having both hands extended towards the chalice, as if he were about to elevate it. He has curly hair and a beard and moustache. He wears a low mitre, a chasuble, fringed maniple, and an alb.

In the top right-hand corner is a cloud from which issues a hand pointing towards the figure just described.

Behind, to the left, stand three figures. The foremost has just thrust the point of a large double-edged sword, with a plain cross hilt, through the neck of the bishop from back to front.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ANCIENT RELIQUARY IN THE CATHEDRAL.]

ANCIENT RELIQUARY IN THE CATHEDRAL.

The upper compartment represents the entombment of the bishop. The middle of the design is occupied by an altar tomb, into which the body, swathed in a diapered winding-sheet, is being lowered.

The ends of the bier are supported by two kneeling figures.

On the side of the tomb furthest from the spectator is a bishop or abbot without the mitre looking toward a figure on his right, who carries a tablet or open book with some words upon it.

At either extremity of this panel stands a figure censing the corpse with a circular thurible.

The border of each compartment is formed by a double invected pattern of gold and enamel. The ridge-piece is of copper perforated with eight keyhole ornaments.

The back of the shrine is also divided into two compartments, and is decorated with quatrefoils.

It is pierced in the middle of the upper border by a keyhole communicating with a lock on the inside.

The right-hand gable is occupied by the figure of a female saint. The left gable is occupied by the figure of a male saint.

A border of small gilt quatrefoils on a chocolate ground runs round the margins of the two ends and four back plates.

Those parts of the copper plates which are not enamelled are gilded, while the colours used in the enamelling are blue, are light-blue, green, yellow, red, chocolate, and white.

In the interior, on that side to which the lower front plate corresponds, is a cross _pattee fitchee_ painted in red upon oak, which oak bears traces of having been stained with blood or some other liquid. The wood at the bottom is evidently modern. This reliquary is said to have been originally placed upon the high altar. It appears to have been preserved by some ancient Roman Catholic family until it came into the possession of the late Canon Russell, and bequeathed by him to the authorities of the cathedral.

The art of enamelling metals appears to have been introduced from Byzantium through Venice into Western Europe at the close of the tenth century. After this time Greek artists are known to have visited this country, and to have carried on a lucrative trade in the manufacture of sacred vessels, shrines, etc.

*Ancient Gold Rings.* One of pure gold, supposed to have been worn by a knight templar, was ploughed up near Hereford. The device on the raised besel is a cross pattee in a square compartment, on each side of which are a crescent and a triple-thonged scourge.

Within the hoop is engraved in black-letter character "_Sancte Michael_."

Date about 1380.

A ma.s.sive ring set with a rough ruby of pale colour was found in the tomb of Bishop Mayew. On each side a bold tan cross with a bell is engraved.

These were originally filled with green enamel. Inside is engraved and enamelled "Ave Maria."

A superb ring was also found in Bishop Stanbury's tomb, on the north side of the altar. It contains a fine and perfect sapphire, and flowers and foliage are beautifully worked in black enamel on each side of the stone.

A fine gold ring was discovered in Bishop Trilleck's grave in 1813, but was stolen in 1838 from the cathedral. It was never recovered, though __30 was offered as a reward.