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)
Little need be said about the modern restorations and additions. The
panelling of solid foreign oak, including the pews, was inserted by Mr
Daniel Finch in 1844. A new pulpit and stone credence-table have also been
added: the floor of the chancel has been re-tiled; the former vestry has
been turned into an organ-chamber, and, where the organ once stood, a new
vestry has been made. In it are placed old engravings of the church and a
copy of the fresco which has already been described. In the drawer-museum
there are kept, besides the chrismatory, some Saxon beads, fac-similes
of the Merovingian coins, portions of the Roman (heathen) altar, and
some pieces of pink plaster. The altar, altar cross, candlesticks, etc.,
are new, as well as a large majority of the stained glass windows, in
which the leading idea has been, as far as possible, to perpetuate events
or persons connected with early Christian history. The three lights
of the east window represent St. Augustine (1) landing at Ebb's Fleet,
(2) entering Canterbury down St. Martin's Hill, and (3) baptising King
Ethelbert; also (4) Queen Bertha attending Christian worship. In other
windows of the chancel are pictures of the death of St. Martin, and the
closing scene in the life of the Venerable Bede; while in the vestry are
two single figures, erroneously supposed to be those of Pope Gregory
and Bishop Lindhard, which were purchased some fifty years ago in
Wardour Street.
On the south side of the =Nave= is a window representing various
scenes in the Life of St. Martin--_e.g._ his entrance into the army,
his consecration as bishop, his healing a leper, etc.--while in the
baptistery is the well-known incident in the Forum at Rome, "Non Angli
sed Angeli." In a memorial window on the north side, near the pulpit,
are four female figures--Queen Bertha, her daughter St. Ethelburga,
St. Dorothea, and St. Margaret of Antioch; and in the north-west a picture
of St. Martin dividing his cloak, probably copied from Vandyke. This
latter window, as well as one in the tower, was painted in 1851 by a
Miss Harriet Ludlow Clarke, who died at Cannes in 1866, and was a lady
of some taste and distinction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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