Stones of the Temple Part 21

2: Anglo-Saxon, _lic_,--a dead body. In Germany the word _leiche_ has doubtless the same original; it is still used to signify a corpse or funeral. The German _leichengang_ has precisely the same meaning as our _Lich-Gate_.

3: It is stated in _Britton's Antiquities_ that there was formerly a Lych-Gate in a lane called Lych-lane in Gloucester, where the body of Edward II. rested on its way to burial in the Cathedral.

4: A Lyke-wake dirge:--

"This ae nighte, this ae nighte, Every nighte and alle; Fire and sleete, and candle lighte, And Christe receive theye saule."

(Scott's "_Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_.")

5: On the Lich-Gate at Bray, Berks, is the date 1448; but there are very few examples so early.

6: The following are among the most interesting of the ancient Lich-Gates still remaining:-- Beckenham, Lincolnshire; Berry-Harbor, Devonshire; Birstal, York; Bromsgrove, Worcestershire; Burnside, Westmoreland; Compton, Berkshire; Garsington, Oxon; Tawstock, Devonshire; West Wickham, Kent; and Worth, Suss.e.x. The construction of the gate at Burnside is very curious, and Tawstock Lich-Gate possesses peculiar features of interest, which are noticed in the next Chapter.

One of the finest Lich-Gates was at Arundel, in Surrey, but it has been removed, and is now the Church Porch.

7: St. John xi. 25. The first words of the Burial Office, said by the Priest at the entrance to the Churchyard.

8: A very interesting paper on Lich-Gates, in the "Clerical Journal,"

affords much information on this subject. Over the gate at Bray are "two chambers, connected with an ancient charitable bequest."

9: This chamber was formerly called the Chapel of the Holy Rood.

10: The custom of distributing "cakes and ale" at the churchyard on the occasion of funerals in Scotland, has been but very recently given up.

Dean Ramsey, in his interesting "anecdotes," has informed us that at the burial of the Chief of a clan, many thousands would sometimes a.s.semble, and not unfrequently the funeral would end in a disgraceful riot.

11: In Cornwall the now common practice of placing a wreath of white flowers on the coffin is a very ancient and still prevailing usage.

12: Consecrated Bishop of Exeter A.D. 1598.

13: These crosses were erected at the following places:--Lincoln, Northampton, Dunstable, St. Alban's, Waltham, Stratford, Cheapside, Blackfriars, and Charing; those at Waltham and Northampton alone remain.

The statue of King Charles now stands where the Charing ("Chere Reine") Cross formerly stood.

14: In a churchyard in Oxfordshire, a large altar-tomb, surrounded by iron railings, occupying a s.p.a.ce of ground in which at least thirty persons might be buried, covers the grave of an infant of three months.

The erection of these ma.s.ses of stone without restraint would make our churchyards only the burial-places of the rich, and would soon entirely exclude the poor from a place in them; whereas the poor have an equal claim with the rich to be buried there, and when buried, the same t.i.tle to respect and protection.

15: The urns which are placed upon so many tombs in our cemeteries and churchyards, unless they have reference to the heathen custom of burning the dead, and placing the ashes in funeral urns, can have no meaning at all. We moreover not unfrequently see a gilded flame issuing from these urns, and here of course the reference is most clearly marked. The Christian custom of burying the dead, which we practise in imitation of the entombment of Christ, dates from the earliest history of man; and as well from the Old as the New Testament we learn that it has ever been followed by those who professed to obey the Divine will. The first grave of which we have any account was the grave of Sarah, Abraham's wife (Gen. xxiii. 19), and the first grave-stone was that over the burial-place of Rachel, Jacob's wife (Gen. xlix. 31).

16: There are comparatively but few churchyard grave-stones more than 250 years old, and probably there are very few of an earlier date but have engraved upon them the sign of the Cross. There are two very ancient grave-stones of this character, having also heads carved upon them, in the churchyard of Silchester. It is likely that the old churchyard crosses were often mortuary memorials. Probably there is hardly an old churchyard but has, at some time, been adorned with its churchyard cross; in most cases, some remains of this most appropriate and beautiful ornament still exist, and doubtless is often older than the churchyard as a place of Christian burial. In many places this cross has been lately restored to its proper place, near to the Lich-Gate. "Let a handsome churchyard cross be erected in every churchyard."--Inst.i.tutions of the Bishop of Winchester, A.D. 1229.

17: The interesting custom of placing natural flowers and wreaths upon graves, is in every respect preferable to that which we see practised in Continental burial-grounds, where the graves are often covered with immortelles, vases of gaudy artificial flowers, images, &c. We have seen as many as fifty wreaths of artificial flowers and tinselled paper, in every stage of decomposition, over one grave in the cemetery of Pere la Chaise, in Paris. In Wales it is a more general practice than in England, to adorn the graves with fresh flowers on Easter Day.

18: This story is true of a parish in Monmouthshire.

19: It is comparatively seldom that any other than the funerals of the _poor_ take place on Sunday, and the reason commonly a.s.signed is--that it is the only day on which their friends can attend. In one, at least, of the large metropolitan cemeteries, exclusively used as a burial-place for the _rich_, no funerals _ever_ take place on a Sunday.

20: Let us hope that the time is near when this objectionable and unsightly appendage will be banished from our funeral processions. The late Mr. Charles d.i.c.kens, in his will, forbad the wearing of hat-bands at his funeral.

21: "In several parts of the north of England, when a funeral takes place, a basin full of sprigs of boxwood is placed at the door of the house from which the coffin is taken up, and each person who attends the funeral ordinarily takes a sprig of the boxwood and throws it into the grave of the deceased."--_Wordsworth_ (_Notes, Excursion_, p. 87).

22: Great care was taken by the medieval architects to make the porches of their churches as beautiful as possible. During some periods, especially the Norman, they seem to have bestowed more labour upon them than upon any other portion of the building. Both externally and internally they were richly decorated, and often abounded in emblematic tracery.

23: "The custom formerly was for the couple, who were to enter upon this holy state, to be placed at the _church door_, where the priest was used to join their hands, and perform the greater part of the matrimonial office. It was here the husband endowed his wife with the dowry before contracted for."--_Wheatley._ In a few church porches there are, or have been, galleries, which seem to have been intended to accommodate a choir for these and other festive occasions.

24: "The porch of the church was anciently used for the performance of several religious ceremonies appertaining to Baptism, Matrimony, and the solemn commemoration of Christ's Pa.s.sion in Holy Week," &c.--_Brandon's Gothic Architecture._ The Office for the Churching of Women also used to be said at the church porch.

25: As our Commination Service declares, persons who stood convicted of notorious sins were formerly put to open penance. The punishment frequently inflicted was--that they should stand at the church door, clothed in a white sheet, and holding a candle in each hand, during the a.s.sembling and departure of the congregation on a Sunday morning. The old parish clerk of Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, remembers, when a boy, seeing a Jew perform this penance in Walton church.

26: "Formerly persons used to a.s.semble in the church porch for civil purposes."--_Brandon._

27: "At a very early period, persons of rank or of eminent piety were allowed to be buried in the porch. Subsequently, interments were permitted within the church, but by the Canons of King Edgar it was ordered that this privilege should be granted to none but good and religious men."--_Parker's Glossary._

28: The parvise is to be found over church porches in all parts of England. It is more common in early English than in Norman architecture, and very frequently to be found in churches of the Decorated and Perpendicular periods. Probably the largest parvise in England is at Bishop's-Cleeve, near Cheltenham. There are interesting specimens at Bridport, Bishop's Auckland, Ampthill, Finedon, Cirencester, Grantham, Martley, Fotheringay, Sherborne, St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, Stanwick, Outwell, and St. Peter's-in-the-East, Oxford. In a few instances there are two parvises, one over the north and one over the south porch, as at Wellingborough. In some cases, as at Martley, Worcestershire, the upper moulding of the original Norman doorway has been concealed by the parvise of later architecture.

29: "The name was formerly given to a favourite apartment, as at Leckingfield, Yorkshire. 'A little studying chamber, caullid paradise.'

(Leland's Itinerary.)"--_Glossary of Architecture._

30: The room may have been the residence of one or more of the ordinary priests of the church, or perhaps only a _study_ for them (see previous note), or it may have been occupied by an anchorite or hermit, or by a chantry priest. Rooms for these several purposes are also not unfrequently to be found over the vestry, as at Cropredy, near Banbury, and at Staindrop, Durham.

31: Fire-places are of frequent occurrence in these chambers; many of them are coeval with the porch, but others appear to have been erected at a later date.

32: At Hawkhurst, Kent, the porch-chamber is called _the treasury_. At St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, the room over the grand north porch, in which are the remains of the chests in which Chatterton professed to find the ma.n.u.scripts attributed to Rowley, was at one time known as the _treasury house_.

33: "The chamber over the porch was generally used for the keeping of books and records belonging to the church. Such an appendage was added to many churches in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; and some of these old libraries still remain with their books fastened to shelves or desks by small chains."--_Brandon's Gothic Architecture._

Over the porch at Finedon (of which we give an engraving) is a parvise in which is contained a valuable library of about 1000 volumes, placed there by Sir John English Dolben, Bart., A.D. 1788. At St.

Peter's-in-the-East, Oxford, and many other places, are similar libraries.

34: These were probably small chantries. It is comparatively seldom that any vestige of the altar remains; but the credence and piscina--certain proofs of the previous existence of the altar--are very commonly found.

35: "The custom of teaching children in the porch is of very early origin; it is distinctly mentioned by Matthew Paris in the time of Henry III."--_Glossary of Architecture._

After the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI., in which reigns all chantries were suppressed, the children were promoted from the porch to the parvise.

36: "Above the groining of the porch is a parvise, accessible by a turret-stair, having two Norman window-openings, unglazed, and a straight-gabled niche between them on the outside. In former days this chamber was constantly inhabited by one of the s.e.xtons, who acted as a watchman, but since the restoration of the church it has been disused."--_Harston's Handbook of Sherborne Abbey_.

In the church accounts of St. Peter's-in-the-East, Oxford, A.D. 1488, there is a charge for a "key to clerk's chamber." This no doubt referred to the parvise.

37: As, a few years ago, at Headcorn in Kent.

38: There was frequently, but not always, a window or opening from the room into the church; and it would seem that it was so placed to enable the occupant of the room to keep a watchful eye over the interior of the church, and not for any devotional exercise connected with the altar, as we never find this window directed obliquely to wards the altar, as is commonly the case with windows opening from the vestry, or chamber above the vestry, into the church.

39: Many porches seem originally not to have had doors, but marks exist which indicate that barriers to keep out cattle were used.

40: It is composed of lamp-black, bees'-wax, and tallow, and is commonly used by shoemakers to give a black polish to the heels of boots.

41: These superst.i.tions existed a few years since in connexion with an old incised slab in the chancel of Christ Church, Caerleon.

42: "In the year 1657, the adherents of a Preacher of the name of Cam obtained the grant of the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church, Hull, from the council of state under the Protectorate, and whilst the mob without were burning the surplice and the Prayer Book, those within were tearing the bra.s.ses from the grave-stones."--_History of Kingston-upon-Hull._