Highways and Byways in Cambridge and ElyConybeare, John William Edward
History
Highways and Byways in Cambridge and Ely
Conybeare, John William Edward
Cambridgeshire (England) -- Description and travel; Isle of Ely (England) -- Description and travel
Yet another point of interest in this church is the eagle lectern, an
exquisite piece of mediaeval brasswork, so good, indeed, that it has
been copied in the lectern of Ely Cathedral. It is apparently
fifteenth century work, and was found buried in the fen, some half
century ago, between Isleham and Soham, so nearly half way that both
parishes laid claim to it, and even now Soham folk are not reconciled
to its loss. Whoever were the original possessors, it was probably
concealed in the fen to save it from the Puritan iconoclasts of the
seventeenth century, who, during the Civil War, habitually destroyed
lecterns of this type as "abominable idols."
Eastward from Newmarket radiate most fascinating roads, leading
through heather and pine woods to Mildenhall, with its splendid church
and ancient market hall; and to Brandon, where men still make (as they
have made for 5000 years) palaeolithic flint implements by the very
same methods used in those prehistoric days; and to Bury St. Edmunds,
with its wonderful ruins and great historical associations. But these
are all out of our beat. To the southward, however, we are in
Cambridgeshire, and a fine avenue, two miles in length, known as "the
Duchess's Drive," leads up to the ridge of the East Anglian heights.
It is noteworthy that almost along the whole length of that ridge, and
particularly hereabouts, villages cluster thick, whereas the slopes
below can show scarcely any, but form an unoccupied belt, two miles
wide, between the upland and the lowland populated area. A very
out-of-the-way district is this watershed between the broad basin of
the Ouse and those of the little rivers running into the North Sea,
for the nearest railways are miles away, and an old time peace broods
over everything.
The first village we come to is Cheveley. The church here is
cruciform, with a piscina of rare beauty in its Early English chancel,
which is closed in by a fourteenth century rood screen of Decorated
work. To the same period belongs the church chest, which has the
unique feature of being made of cypress wood, and the tower, also with
the unique feature of an external bartizan or watch-turret, apparently
for a beacon fire. The dedication of the church is no less unique,
"St. Mary and the Sacred Host."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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