Stained Glass Tours in EnglandSherrill, Charles Hitchcock
History
Stained Glass Tours in England
Sherrill, Charles Hitchcock
Cathedrals -- England; England -- Description and travel; Glass painting and staining -- England
The most interesting and pleasing of all the windows is the large one of
three lancets on the north side of the choir showing fourteen scenes
from the life of St. Bernard, six in the central lancet, and four in
each of the side ones. Four more episodes from the same life are to be
seen in the middle one of the south aisle. This glass, originally in the
German Abbey of Altenberg, and then for many years in the vaults of St.
Severin at Cologne, was finally brought to London, where it was secured
for St. Mary's by the Rev. Mr. Rowlands. The designs are attributed to
Albrecht Dürer, but this is a common claim for German glass of that
time. The perspective throughout is good, and the colouring very
satisfactory. An unusual charm is added to the little figures by the use
of Latin labels issuing from their mouths. There are also inscriptions
below most of them, but these are frequently mutilated and misplaced. If
proof were needed that this glass was not specially constructed for its
present location, it is provided by the fact that the scenes do not
follow in their proper order. A field-glass can be had on application to
the clerk, and the use of it reveals many interesting and amusing
details. The second window on the east in the chapel, south of the
choir, has in its tracery-lights written music carried by angels. The
pilgrim will later observe a great deal of this in the Beauchamp
Chapel at Warwick. Although rare in England, it is rarer still in
France. A fine sixteenth-century Crucifixion scene, covering three
lancets, decorates the north window just off the north transept.
In the modest-sized east window of this transept are twelve small
sixteenth-century enamel panels placed on white, a demonstration of yet
another style of that later period. The rest of the glazing in St.
Mary's is either modern or so completely repaired with new glass as to
have lost all its ancient feeling. An inspection of this church would
not be complete without observing the fine wooden ceilings of both the
nave and the choir.
Devotees of the Ingoldsby Legends will remember that when the Great Dog
in the castle of "Bloudie Jacke of Shrewsberrie" was about to seize upon
Mary Anne, she vicariously appeased him with:
"A Shrewsbury cake, of Pallin's own make,
Which she happened to take
Ere her run she begun,
She'd been used to a luncheon at One."
Mindful of this dainty's historic existence, the traveller will
doubtless regale himself therewith, that product of the town being as
excellent and famous to-day as ever it was of yore.
From Shrewsbury our route lies southward over that centuries-old
battle-ground, the Welsh Marches. We shall find not only much
architectural beauty and fine glass, but also many inspiring memories of
the border warfare whose bitterness lasted so many centuries.
LUDLOW
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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