Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages: Third EditionCutts, Edward Lewes
History
Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages: Third Edition
Cutts, Edward Lewes
Civilization, Medieval; Middle Ages -- Social life and customs
St. Robert's Chapel, at Knaresborough, Yorkshire, is a very excellent
example of a hermitage.[112] It is hewn out of the rock, at the bottom of
a cliff, in the corner of a sequestered dell. The exterior, a view of
which is given below, presents us with a simply arched doorway at the
bottom of the rough cliff, with an arched window on the left, and a little
square opening between, which looks like the little square window of a
recluse. Internally we find the cell sculptured into the fashion of a
little chapel, with a groined ceiling, the groining shafts and ribs well
enough designed, but rather rudely executed. There is a semi-octagonal
apsidal recess at the east end, in which the altar stands; a piscina and a
credence and stone seat in the north wall; a row of sculptured heads in
the south wall, and a grave-stone in the middle of the floor. This chapel
appears to have been also the hermit's living room. The view of the
exterior, and of the interior and ground-plan, are from Carter's "Ancient
Architecture," pl. lxvii. Another hermitage, whose chapel is very similar
to this, is at Warkworth. It is half-way up the cliff, on one side of a
deep, romantic valley, through which runs the river Coquet, overhung with
woods. The chapel is hewn out of the rock, 18 feet long by 7-1/2 wide,
with a little entrance-porch on the south, also hewn in the rock; and, on
the farther side, a long, narrow apartment, with a small altar at the east
end, and a window looking upon the chapel altar. This long apartment was
probably the hermit's living room; but when the Earls of Northumberland
endowed the hermitage for a chantry priest, the priest seems to have lived
in a small house, with a garden attached, at the foot of the cliff. The
chapel is groined, and has Gothic windows, very like that of
Knaresborough. A minute description of this hermitage, and of the legend
connected with it, is given in a poem called "The History of Warkworth"
(4to, 1775), and in a letter in Grose's "Antiquities," vol. iii., is a
ground-plan of the chapel and its appurtenances. A view of the exterior,
showing its picturesque situation, will be found in Herne's "Antiquities
of Great Britain," pl. 9.
[Illustration: _Exterior View of St. Robert's Chapel, Knaresborough._]
[Illustration: _Interior View of St. Robert's Chapel._]
There is a little cell, or oratory, called the hermitage, cut out of the
face of a rock near Dale Abbey, Derbyshire. On the south side are the door
and three windows; at the east end, an altar standing upon a raised
platform, both cut out of the rock; there are little niches in the walls,
and a stone seat all round.[113]
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