Bell's Cathedrals: The Church of St. Martin, Canterbury: An Illustrated Account of its History and Fabric — John Shaqi
Bell's Cathedrals: The Church of St. Martin, Canterbury: An Illustrated Account of its History and FabricRoutledge, C. F. (Charles Francis)
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Church of St. Martin, Canterbury: An Illustrated Account of its History and Fabric
Routledge, C. F. (Charles Francis)
St. Martin's Church (Canterbury, England)
in Dover Castle, as being in a somewhat similar position, but there it
is generally supposed to be a lychnoscope for the use of soldiers in the
guard-room, so that they might watch the light burning at the altar on
the south-east of the nave, which was specially reserved for them.
There is a great difference of opinion as to the proper name of these
openings, two of which are certainly, and another possibly, found in
St. Martin's Church. We are told that the squint is not to be confounded
with low side-windows or lychnoscopes, originally unglazed. Squints,
as a rule, may be defined as inside the church, and the others outside,
primarily for the purpose of enabling persons in the aisles to see
the elevation of the Host at the high altar, though they are sometimes
found connected with a side-chapel, a parvise, or a tower-chamber. Their
usual height is about 4 ft. from the ground, extending upwards from 2
to 10 ft. Narrow at first, they were gradually enlarged and broadened,
as at St. Clement's and St. Peter's churches in Sandwich. Sometimes when
near a side-altar they were utilised as a credence, or had a _piscina_
sunk in them (_cf._ Crawley Church in Hampshire)--and it is not impossible
that the only real squint or hagioscope in St. Martin's Church was through
the back of the existing piscina. The other openings, as I have said,
might have been used as lepers' windows, or for penitents.
The tower was added in the fourteenth century. It is somewhat squat, and
crowned with a pyramidal top. It measures 16 ft. by 13 ft. 3 in. in length
and width, with two large buttresses on the west side, each projecting
4 ft. 3 in. It is built principally of flint with a slight intermixture
of thin mediæval tiles, and has three louvre windows, one of which,
with the peculiar "long and short" features of Saxon stone work, may
have been transferred there from some other portion of the church. The
building of this tower has probably destroyed some interesting feature,
that stood at the west end of the original church. This may have been
a western apse (so common in early basilicas) or perhaps a baptistery,
or a chamber with an arch on each of its four sides. Whatever it be,
is at present a matter of conjecture, but further explorations may solve
the mystery; and wise men will forbear to dogmatise, when their positive
theories may at any moment be overthrown.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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