English Villages Part 10

CHAPTER XIII

THE MANOR-HOUSE

Evolution of a country house--Saxon house--Addition of separate sleeping-chambers--Castles--Tudor houses--Old manor-houses--Secret chambers--Rectories and vicarages--Duty of hospitality--Kelvedon Rectory--Allington--t.i.the-barns--Alfriston clergy-house--Almshouses-- Hermitages--Little Budworth--Knaresborough--Reclusorium or anchor-hold-- Laindon--Rattenden--Female recluses--Whalley.

The two princ.i.p.al houses in an English village are the manor-house and the rectory, wherein according to the theories of the modern political Socialist and agitator "the two arch-tyrants" of the labourers dwell, the squire and the parson. There is much of interest in the growth and evolution of the country house, which resulted in the construction of these old, pleasant, half-timbered granges and manor-houses, which form such beautiful features of our English villages.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SOUTHCOTE MANOR SHOWING MOAT AND PIGEON-HOUSE]

[Ill.u.s.tration: OCKWELLS MANOR-HOUSE]

In our description of the village in Anglo-Saxon times we gave a picture of a house of a Saxon gentleman, which consisted mainly of one large hall, wherein the members of the household lived and slept and had their meals. There was a chapel, and a kitchen, and a ladies' bower, usually separated from the great hall, and generally built of wood. In Norman times the same plan and arrangements of a country house continued. The fire still burnt in the centre of the hall, the smoke finding its way out through a louvre in the roof. Meals were still served on tables laid on trestles, which were removed when the meal was finished. The lord and lady, their family and guests, dined at the high table placed on the dais, as in a college hall, the floor of which was boarded. The household and retainers dined in the s.p.a.ce below, which was strewn with rushes and called "the marsh," which, according to Turner's _History of Domestic Architecture_, "was doubtless dirty and damp enough to deserve that name." The timbers of the roof in the better houses were moulded, the walls hung with tapestry, and at the lower end of the hall was a screen, above which in later times was the minstrels' gallery. The screen formed a pa.s.sage which led into a separate building at right angles to the hall, containing the cellar, b.u.t.tery, and kitchen.

Parallel with this at the upper end of the hall was a building of two stories, one used as a parlour, and the other was called the "great chamber," where the lady and her guests retired after dining in the hall.

[Ill.u.s.tration: RICHMOND PALACE]

Later on a greater refinement of domestic customs was introduced. In the twelfth century a separate sleeping-chamber for the lord was added. The next century saw him and his lady dining in a room apart from his servants, a custom which was much satirised by the author of _Piers Ploughman_, who wrote--

"Now hath each rich a rule To eaten by themselve, In a privy parlour For poor man sake, Or in a chamber with a chimney; And leave the chief hall, That was made for meals Men to eaten in."

Evidently the author did not approve of the new fashion. But the advantages of the custom were much appreciated by the squires and ladies of the day, and this process of development led to a multiplication of rooms, and the diminution of the size of the great hall. The walls were raised, and an upper room was formed under the roof for sleeping accommodation. There are many old farmhouses throughout the country, once manor-houses, which retain in spite of subsequent alterations the distinguishing features of this mediaeval style of architecture.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DOORWAY AND STAIRCASE, UFTON COURT]

The n.o.bles built their castles as late as the fourteenth century; but under the Tudor monarchs, when the government of the country was strong and more settled, fortified dwellings were deemed no longer necessary, and the great landowners built splendid country houses. English domestic architecture then reached the period of its highest perfection. Instead of castles men built palaces, the n.o.blest specimens of our English style, before it became corrupted. Hatfield House and Hampton Court are its best examples.

During the fifteenth century the common hall had decreased in importance; and now in smaller houses it disappeared altogether, and a grand entrance hall usually took its place. The number of rooms was increased enormously, and corridors were introduced. The princ.i.p.al features of an Elizabethan house are the gallery and n.o.ble staircase.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PORCH, UFTON COURT]

Early in the seventeenth century Inigo Jones introduced the revived cla.s.sic style of architecture into England, and entirely altered the appearance and arrangement of our manor-houses. Palladio was the originator of this style. The old English model was declared obsolete, and fashion dictated that Italian villas must supersede the old houses.

These new buildings were very grand with their porticos and colonnades; but the architects cared little for comfort and convenience. Indeed a witty n.o.bleman suggested to the owner of one of these new houses that he had better hire a lodging over the way and look at it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD MANOR HOUSE, UPTON COURT]

The old manor-houses are often surrounded by a moat, and not unfrequently contain secret rooms and underground pa.s.sages, which were often used as places of refuge in troublous times. Those held by recusants usually had two or three hiding-places ingeniously contrived, which must have baffled all pursuers, and were needed for the concealment of the Roman Catholic priest, in the days when his services were proscribed. There are two cleverly designed hiding-places at Ufton Court, Berkshire, which was held by the Roman Catholic family of Perkins. In a subterranean vault under an old house at Hurley, in which the bones of monks were discovered, the supporters of William of Orange used to meet to plan his succession to the English Crown. The walls of many of the manor-houses and halls in Lancashire and Yorkshire could tell of many a plot for the restoration of the Stuarts to the throne, and of many a deep health drunk to "Bonnie Charlie," while the chorus rang--

"He's over the seas and far awa', He's over the seas and far awa', But of no man we'll stand in awe, But drink his health that's far awa'."

The rectories and vicarages scattered over the country have pa.s.sed through the same transformation as the manor-houses, which they much resembled. The rectory was often surrounded by a moat, with an entrance protected by a gatehouse. The duty of entertaining strangers and travellers was always duly recognised by the clergy, and entailed a heavy charge upon their income. Those who lived off the main roads used to provide accommodation for an occasional guest, but the rectors in the more frequented districts had frequently to entertain many travellers.

There _is_ a description of the rectory-house of Kelvedon, Ess.e.x, in a deed dated 1356, which runs as follows:--

"One hall situate in the manor of the said abbot and convent [Westminster] near the said church, with a soler and chamber at one end of the hall, and with a b.u.t.tery and cellar at the other. Also one other house in three parts, namely a kitchen with a convenient chamber in the end of the said house _for guests_, and a bakehouse. Also one other house in two parts next the gate at the entrance of the manor for a stable and cow-house. He [the vicar] shall also have a convenient grange, to be built within a year at the expense of the prior and convent. He shall also have the curtilage with the garden adjoining the hall on the north side enclosed as it is with hedges and ditches."

[Ill.u.s.tration: WINDOW OF SOUTH WING, UFTON COURT]

Here the house for guests is an important feature of the clergyman's house; and about the same date, in 1352, we find the Bishop of Winchester ordering the prior and convent of Merton to provide "a competent manse for the vicar, viz. a hall with two rooms, one at one end of the hall, and the other at the other end, with a drain to each, and a suitable kitchen with fireplace and oven, and a _stable for six horses_, all covered with tiles, and completed within one year, such place to remain to the use of the said vicar and his successors." Unless the vicar was a very sporting parson he would not require a stable for six horses, and this was doubtless intended for the accommodation of the steeds of his guests.

The descriptions of these old rectory-houses are interesting. The Rector of Allington, Kent, possessed a house consisting of "a hall, parlour, and chamber over the parlour, stairs-head, beside the parson's bedchamber, parson's lodging-chamber, study, chamber behind the chimney, chamber next adjoining westward, b.u.t.tery, priest's chamber, servants'

chamber, kitchen, mill-house, boulting-house, larder, entries, women's chamber; gatehouse, still beside the gate, barn next the gate; cartlage, barn next the church, garden-house, court." The barn next the church was probably the t.i.the-barn. t.i.the was then paid in kind; hence a barn was required to contain the dues of the parishioners. Sometimes these t.i.the-barns are very large and long, especially when the t.i.the-owner was the abbot of some monastery. Near Reading there is still standing the barn of the abbey, and at Cholsey, in Berkshire, there is one of the finest specimens of the kind in England.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STONE t.i.tHE BARN, BRADFORD-ON-AVON]

There still remain several of these old pre-Reformation parsonages and rectories. The most noted is the clergy-house at Alfriston, Suss.e.x, which has been carefully preserved. It follows the usual type of fourteenth-century house, and consists of a fine hall, the lower part divided off by a screen, a soler of two stories at one end, and a kitchen at the other. It is built of oak framework, filled in with "wattle and daub." There is a large chimney and grate in the hall, and huge beams support the thatched roof. Parsonages of mediaeval times remain at West Dean, Suss.e.x; at King's Stanley and Notgrove, Gloucestershire; Wonstone, Hants; Helmsley, Yorkshire; and at several other places. The Rectory of Sh.e.l.lingford, Berks, though much disguised by modern additions, is an original fourteenth-century house.

In many villages there are old almshouses founded by pious benefactors for "poor brethren and sisters." As we enter the quiet courtyard paved with cobble stones, the spirit of olden days comes over us. The chapel where daily prayer is said morning and evening; the panelled dining-hall, with its dark oaken table; the comfortable rooms of the brethren; the time-worn pump in the courtyard--all recall the memory of old times, when life was more tranquil, and there was less hurry and busy bustling.

Sometimes we meet with a curious little house built of stone or timber, erected along the great highways, near some bridge or ford, wherein a "holy hermit" once dwelt, and served his generation by directing travellers to the nearest monastery or rectory, and spent his days in seclusion and prayer. Such indeed is the traditional idea of the hermit's life; but the real hermit of the Middle Ages did not always live a very lonely or ascetic life. He was supported by the alms of the charitable and did no work, but lived an idle life, endured no hardships, and escaped not the scoffs of the satirical. _Piers Ploughman_ tells us of workmen--"webbers and tailors, and carters'

knaves, and clerks without grace, who liked not long labour and light wages; and seeing that lazy fellows in friars' clothing had fat cheeks, forsook their toil and turned hermits. They lived in boroughs among brewers and begged in churches." They had a good house, with sometimes a chaplain to say daily Ma.s.s for them, a servant or two to wait on them, and plenty of food and drink provided by a regular endowment or the donations of the charitable. They did not shut themselves up in their cells and hold no intercourse with their fellow-men; and herein they differed from the recluses who were not supposed to go outside the doors of their anchorages. Both males and females were enrolled as recluses, but only the latter seem to have taken upon themselves the vows of complete seclusion.

Several of these hermitages remain. There is one at Little Budworth, in Cheshire, in the park of Sir Philip Egerton. Warkworth has a famous one, consisting of a chapel hewn out of the rock, with an entrance porch, and a long, narrow room with a small altar at the east end, wherein the hermit lived. At Knaresborough, Yorkshire, there is a good example of a hermitage, hewn out of the rock, consisting of a chapel, called St.

Robert's Chapel, with groined roof, which was used as the living-room of the hermit. This chapel was the scene of Eugene Aram's murder. At Wetheral, near Carlisle; Lenton, near Nottingham; on the banks of the Severn, near Bewdley, Worcestershire, there are anchorages, and also at Brandon, Downham, and Stow Bardolph, in Norfolk. Spenser in the _Faery Queen_ gives the following description of a hermit's cell:--

"A little lowly hermitage it was, Down by a dale, hard by a forest's side, Far from resort of people that did pa.s.s In traveill to and froe; a little wyde There was an holy Chappell edifyde, Wherein the hermite dewly wont to say His holy things, each morne and eventyde; Hereby a chrystall streame did gently play, Which from a sacred fountaine welled forth alway."

Within the churchyard of many a town or village church, and usually attached to the church, stood a reclusorium, or anchor-hold, wherein a recluse, male or female, once resided. At Laindon Church, Ess.e.x, there is a fine specimen of a house of this kind attached to the west end.

Generally the anchor-hold was a small room, built of wood, connected with the church. Frequently there is a room over the porch of a church which may have been used for this purpose, the recluse living usually in the church. At Rettenden, Ess.e.x, there is a room over the vestry which has evidently been an anchor-hold. There was a window, now blocked up, through which the recluse could see the high altar, and the celebration of the holy mysteries, and another for him to look out, hold converse with his friends, and receive their alms. The church of St. Patricio, near Crickhowel, South Wales, has an anchor-hold; also Clifton Campville Church, Staffordshire; Chipping Norton Church, Oxfordshire; Warmington Church, Warwickshire; and many churches have rooms over the porch which were formerly used by recluses. The church itself was frequently the habitation of the anchorite. There is a notice of a hermit who lived in St. Cuthbert's Church, Thetford, and performed divine service therein.

Of female recluses we gather many details in the _Ancren Riewle_ of Bishop Poore of Salisbury, who left very minute directions for the regulation of their austere and solitary lives. The little cell had an altar where the anch.o.r.ess frequently prayed, and through a window saw the elevation of the Host in the daily Ma.s.s. The walls were covered with mural paintings. There was a table, a fire, and a cat lying before it. An unglazed window with a shutter was covered by a black curtain, through which she could converse with anyone outside without being seen.

She was not allowed to put her head out of the open window. "A peering anch.o.r.ess, who is always thrusting her head outward, is like an untamed bird in a cage," says the good bishop. The long hours of solitude were spent in devotion, working embroidery, reading her few books, talking to her servant or to those who desired to speak with her through the curtained window.

The poor caged birds must often have wished to break the bars of their cage, and occasionally they escaped from their solitary confinement. In the churchyard of Whalley, Lancashire, there are two cottages which stand upon the site of a reclusorium, founded by Henry, Duke of Lancaster, in 1349. Here in the reign of Henry VI. lived one Isole de Heton, who wearied of her lot, and left the anchor-hold, an example which was followed by several of her successors. A scandal having arisen, the hermitage was dissolved.

Many a sad story of ruined hopes and broken hearts could these walls tell, which were the living tombs of many a devout or erring sister, who, wounded in the world's war, sought the calm seclusion of a cell, and found there the peace which elsewhere they had failed to find.

CHAPTER XIV

PARISH CHURCHES

The Porch--Font--Stone benches--Pews--Pulpits--Rood-lofts--Destruction of--Screens--Royal arms--Chancel--Stalls--_Misereres_--Lectern--High altar and its furniture--Piscina--Credence--Aumbry--Sedilia--Easter sepulchre--Reredos--Shrines--Numerous altars--Chantry chapels-- Hagioscopes--Images--Low side windows--Vestries--Vestments--Churches in olden times--Reading pews--Galleries--Destruction and profanation-- Evils of "restoration."

In the centre of our village stands the church, always the most important and interesting building in the place. We will suppose that it has not suffered overmuch at the hands of the "restorers" of the nineteenth, or the Puritans of the seventeenth, or the spoliators of an earlier century, so that we may observe all those details which characterise an ancient church. In spite of all the vandalism which has taken place, in spite of the changes in ceremonial and forms of worship, our beautiful old churches still retain relics of the past which time has spared.

We will enter the church and notice first the porch, often a large structure with a chamber above. Why was it made so large? According to the Sarum use several services took place in the porch. Parts of the baptismal service and of the marriage service and the churching of women were there performed; hence the porch was an important building, and it was necessary to make it rather large. Above the door there is frequently a niche for the image of the patron saint of the church, which has not usually escaped the destructive hand of the Puritan. The room over the porch was frequently inhabited by a recluse, as I have already recorded in the previous chapter. Near the door always stands the font, signifying that baptism is the entrance to the Church of Christ. Ancient fonts are large enough to allow the infant to be totally immersed, and are made of stone or lead. Childrey Church, in our county of Berks, has a fine cylindrical, leaden font, of Norman date, carved with figures of bishops. Norman fonts are frequently carved, the favourite subjects being the Baptism of our Lord, the Twelve Apostles, and the evangelistic symbols. Early English and Decorated fonts are not usually carved, but in the Perpendicular style they are rich with ornamentation, the Seven Sacraments being a not uncommon design. We have sometimes noticed the symbols of Freemasonry carved on fonts, as at Bray, in Berkshire. To the same period belong the splendid spire-shaped font-covers, of immense weight, of which I am sometimes a little fearful, lest the mechanism by which they are raised should become damaged, and terrible disaster follow during the progress of a baptismal service. At Sonning, Berks, there is a small stone desk attached to a pillar for the service-book to rest on.

The nave of the church is now filled with seats for the use of the congregation. In early times they do not seem to have been considered necessary, and until the fourteenth century the stone benches ranged against the walls were the only seats provided. Even as late as the fourteenth century it does not appear that many churches had pews, but in the fifteenth they became general. The hideous monstrosities of post-Reformation times did not then disfigure our churches. The pews were low open seats made of oak, sometimes carved at the back, and panelled, with the ends higher than the rest, and often richly carved.

Many rich men left money in their wills for the _puying_ of churches.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ANCIENT PEW-WORK, TYSOE CHURCH, WARWICKSHIRE]

It was not until the beginning of the seventeenth century that the fashion of erecting high pews set in, which so disfigured our churches, and were frequently censured by the authorities. Some of these (as at Whalley) resemble four-posted beds; others are like cattle-pens, large square boxes with seats all round, wherein the occupants sit and sleep, screened from the rest of the congregation. The carving of the woodwork of these erections is often very elaborate. Modern pews are happily based upon the more primitive fashion.