The great window has fine Decorated tracery, and is beneath a rich triangular canopy. The west doorway is very deeply moulded, and has fine foliated shafts. On the buttresses are rich canopies, beneath which are images. This front is adorned with elegant hexagonal turrets crowned by pyramidal pinnacles, richly crocketed. Above the clerestory is a cornice of grotesque heads running round the whole of the church. This appears more like Early English. The length of the nave is 108 feet by 59. The length of the choir is 111 feet. The choir fell in in 16. ., having become ruinous through dispute as to who was to keep it in repair. HEMINGBOROUGH.-ST. MARY. The church of Hemingborough is a very spacious and handsome structure, built in the form of a cross, and consisting of a nave with collateral aisles, a north and south transept, and chancel with a chapel on each side. The tower rises from the centre, and is supported on lofty pointed arches, springing from clustered columns. The tower is large and low, but is surmounted by a very lofty well-proportioned stone spire. The church exhibits various specimens of architecture. The nave is divided from its aisles on either side by four arches, those two to the west are pointed, and spring from circular columns, the two to the east are semi-circular, and there is one circular pillar, and another plain square pier. Above these arches is a clerestory of plain square windows. The great west window is of Perpendicular tracery; most of the other windows in the nave are flat-headed, and probably Perpendicular. It may be observed that the square-headed windows are peculiarly common in this part of Yorkshire. The north transept is divided from a very small aisle on the west by pointed arches springing from a round pillar. A narrow pointed arch divides it from the chapel on the north side of the chancel. That chapel contains the alabaster figure of a skeleton in a shroud, in very good preservation. There is also against the eastern wall a pedestal ornamented with an embattled moulding and flowers, which probably was an altar. The north transept has a large Perpendicular window, now nearly stopped up. The south transept has also a very large Perpendicular window, but in the clerestory on the west side is one of early Decorated work, and two small lancet ones, which are evidently Early English. The chancel has the ancient stalls remaining, which prove this church to have once had a chapter, but they are in a very sad ruinous condition. There are also vestiges of many brasses, but unfortunately all destroyed. The east window is large, and consists of six lights, and is probably late Early English, from its simplicity; the lights are trefoiled. The window on the north-east side is extremely early Decorated, if that term can at all be applicable to so plain a thing. a thing. The chancel is divided from the south chapel by very flat Tudor arches, springing from piers formed of alternate shafts and hollows; the shafts have extremely rich foliated capitals. The chapel is enclosed by elegant wooden screen work. It is evidently very late Perpendicular; the windows have very flat heads, and the battlement is pierced and adorned with trefoils. It is much injured in some parts, which is much to be regretted, as it is so extremely elegant. It is crowned by crocketed pinnacles. The font stands in the western portion of the nave, and is an elegant Norman specimen, being large and round, and moulded with a range of semi-circular arches. It resembles that in St. Helen's church, in York. At the west end is a clumsy gallery with an organ. The church is ill-paved, and requires some repairs. "Superstitio" in the Yorkshire Monasteries. PAR ARLIAMENT met on February 4th, 1536, when Cromwell, on the part of his royal master, Henry VIII., laid before the Houses the first report on the condition of the monasteries of England, preparatory to their dissolution. The value of this report, so far as Yorkshire is concerned, can be judged from the fact that the two notorious royal commissioners, Layton and Legh, met at Lichfield on December 22nd, 1535, and were actually less than six weeks, in those days of difficult transit, in "visiting" the monasteries, big and little, of the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield, and of the province of York, covering in all seven counties. The commissioners, too, were men of disgraceful and servile lives, readily accepting bribes, and altogether corrupt. With the disgusting charges that Layton and Legh brought against the religious houses after a few hours visit, I should be sorry to defile these or any other pages, even in the condensed form in which the returns were made-more especially as their charges, when capable of investigation, almost usually turn out to be baseless libels. There is, however, one heading, which occurs pretty frequently in their comperta or reports, namely, "Superstitio," under which is named any special relic of general repute or any local pilgrimage that seemed worthy of being held up to reprobation. In 1875, the late Duke of Devonshire lent me, from the Chatsworth Library, a contemporary copy (or possibly the original return) of Layton and Legh's Comperta of the northern province, of which I made a transcript; it has never been printed, and I now give, for what they are worth, all the superstitio entries of the religious houses of York. The statements of men who were practised and venial liars are necessarily tainted on every subject, and no doubt they desired to please Henry and Cromwell under superstitio, as well as other heads. Nevertheless, it would seem that there was more likelihood of truth under this head than any other, their information being probably obtained from the current talk of the district. According to their statements, no fewer than seven Yorkshire houses claimed to have a girdle of the Blessed Virgin, whilst the nunnery of Basedale had some of her milk. In five monasteries there were parts of the Holy Cross. More than one instance is given of a superstitious use being made of the relics of the uncanonised, notably, and most curiously, the belt of Thomas, Duke of Lancaster, at Pontefract. is also interesting to note that the name of St. Wilfrid's Needle, as associated with the crypt of Ripon, is of pre-Reformation origin, and not of later date, as has usually been supposed. J. CHARLES Cox. BRIDLINGTON (Priory of Austin Canons). It Hic colitur Johannes de Bridlington, et in veneracione habent tria lamina ligni Sancti Crucis. MELSA ALIAS MEWSE (Meaux, Cistercian Abbey). Hic cingulum habent sancti Bernardi pregnantibus aliquibus prestitum. NONEBURNEHAM MONIALIUM (Nunburnholme, Benedictine Nunnery). Hic partem habent sancti Crucis. SELBY (Benedictine Abbey). Hic etiam zonam habent beate Marie ut pretenditur. KIRKEHAM (Kirkham, Priory of Austin Canons). Hic etiam zonam beate Marie (ut pretenditur) habent parturientibus salutiferam. CLEMENTHORP MONIALIUM (Benedictine Nunnery). Hic etiam habent zonam (ut creditur) beate Marie in veneracione, et huc fit perigrinatio ad sanctam Scytham. SANCTI TRINITATIS EBORACEN (Holy Trinity, York, Benedictine Cell). Hic in veneratione habent zonam cujusdem olim prioris hujus domus parturientibus (ut creditur) salutiferam. MON' DE FONTIBUS (Fountains, Cistercian Abbey). Hic etiam zonam habent beate Marie (ut creditur). RIPON COLLEGIUM. Hic superstitiose frequentare solebant quendam laberinthum, vocatum Saynet Willfredes Nedle. KELDHAM MONIALIUM (Keldholme, Cistercian Nunnery). Et hic habent partem sancti Crucis, et digitum sancti Stephani, que solent prestari parturientibus. ARDEN MONIALIUM (Arden in Hawnby, Benedictine Nunnery). Huc ad imaginem sancte Brigitte accedunt mulieres et offerunt pro variis preditis aut egrotis. PONTEFRACT (Cluniac Cell). Hic in veneracione habent Thomam Lancastr' ducem et ejus zonam que, ut creditur, parturientibus est salutare, et feltrum ejusdem pro dolore capitis. |
