Glasgow Cathedral, at Eton College, at the eastward screen of Gloucester
Cathedral, and at Roche Abbey. Altars in the same position still exist
abroad, as at Lierre, Aerschot, Dixmude, and Brou. At Louvain (St.
Pierre) the side arches have, unfortunately, been opened out, and the
altars removed, and the same process has been gone through with the side
arches at Exeter Cathedral.
[Illustration: HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, TATTERSHALL.]
On the eastern side of the screen at _Tattershall_, facing the chancel,
is a doorway with a four-centred arch, square-headed above, with the
spandrils filled in with the Tudor rose. Above the doorway, as at
_Lincoln_, only here in stone, is a projecting three-sided feature
ornamented with a band of panelling which extends across the whole width
of the screen, and is similar to those already described on the western
side. Below the band the screen-wall is blank, no doubt for the canopied
stalls, of which there are some fragments as well as the stone bases left
in the church. The upper edge of this front of the screen is finished off
with Tudor flowers, which, however, are not pierced through completely as
they were on the nave side. The loft is protected on each face, east and
west, by a solid wall, 4 feet 7 inches in height, with a coped projecting
portion behind the Tudor cresting on the west side. In the projection
into the chancel there are two stone book-rests, one in the middle, 2
feet long by 1 foot 3 inches high, occupying the space behind the three
middle Tudor flowers; it is 3 feet 7 inches from the floor, and has a
ledge about 1½ inches wide at the lower edge to hold the book safely. The
second one faces north-east, and occupies the space behind the two outer
Tudor flowers; it is a couple of inches less in length. An example of
much the same kind—a stone book-rest—can still be seen at the east side
of the loft of the Jubé in the monastic church of Valleria at Sion, in
the Rhone valley.
The rood-beam and rood probably stood across the chancel arch, above the
loft, as there are marks on both pillars of considerable damage about two
feet below the capitals.
From the south end of the loft a doorway gives access to a turret
staircase leading up to the roof; the turret has evidently been higher,
and has probably served as the bell turret for the _Sanctus_ bell. The
date of the screen has been supposed to be settled by an inscription
recorded by Holles:—
ORATE PRO ANIMA ROBERTI DE WHALLEY HUJUS COLLEGII, QUI HOC OPUS
FIERI FECIT ANNO DOMINI MCCCCCXXVIII, CUJUS ANIMA PROPICIETUR
DEUS. AMEN.
He seems to have been buried beneath its archway.[104] But the work
is evidently contemporaneous with the rest of the church, as shown
especially by the staircase turret, and there is no trace whatever of
any Renaissance feeling. Probably the inscription refers rather to some
decoration, colour or the like, on the screen. It is curious that this
screen possesses the only instance of cusped arches in the church.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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