rood-loft staircase at _Barkston_ is a small hollow, possibly intended as
a piscina or stoup for the service of a rood-altar. Mention has been made
of an altar on the rood-loft of the perished screen at _Grantham_. At
_Frampton_ a beautiful little quatrefoil window, just under the roof at
the south end of the rood-loft, has been opened out, as well as a hole in
the wall beneath it, probably for an office book.
The fate of the roods and rood-lofts has been mentioned above; since
those days much damage has been done to the screens which were left, by
actual destruction, accident, ignorance, and neglect. Fortunately, in the
last thirty years opinion has got educated somewhat, and many of the old
screens have been restored, repaired, and (where necessary) replaced,
while new ones, designed by the first architects of the day, are
furnishing our churches. “Le bon temps viendra” for screens, and indeed
has already come in part.
* * * * *
In domestic chapels of any size it is not unusual to find a chancel
screen, as at The Mote, Ightham, figured by J. H. Parker. Also, in not
a few instances, the western part of the chapel thus shut off has been
divided into two storeys, the upper chamber being for the use of the
lord and his family, the lower one for the domestics. This arrangement,
according to J. H. Parker, continued to be usual in the fifteenth
century, and even later, as at East Hendred, Berks, at Studley Priory
and at Godstow Nunnery, in Oxfordshire. The chapel at Markenfield Hall,
Yorkshire, has also been an example of the same. At East Hendred, the
screen to both upper and lower chambers still exists; at Berkeley Castle
the screen in front of the upper chamber is original, though altered,
that of the lower one is modern. Here, as not infrequently, there is
a fireplace in the upper chamber. At Chibburn, Northumberland, and at
Trecarrel House, Cornwall, the same arrangement has prevailed. “In
Hawarden Castle, Flintshire (said the same authority), the chapel is very
small, and must have been merely a private oratory, or, as seems more
probable, the chancel or sacrarium only, separated by a screen from the
principal chamber in the keep, and with also a ‘squint’ or opening from
the passage in the thickness of the wall, to enable persons thus placed
to see the elevation of the Host.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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