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
Several churches of this city also contain Perpendicular windows of
great interest. We have already visited most of these to inspect their
Decorated remains (_see_ p. 78), and, for the sake of regularity, will
now take them up in the same order when viewing their Perpendicular
glazing. All Saints' in North Street, tucked snugly away among its
surrounding buildings and only accessible by means of a narrow alley, is
the most interesting of all the smaller churches. It is, fortunately, in
the possession of a rector (Rev. P. J. Shaw) so keenly alive to its
store of beauties that he has preserved them in a handsome volume, and
thus made their enjoyment possible for those who live far away. Fine as
are the Decorated windows already described, the Perpendicular ones are
finer still. They fill almost all the embrasures not occupied by the
earlier glass. Most of them are in the usual figure-and-canopy style,
although here groups generally replace the figures, and the details of
the architecture are worked out in a painstaking way. A very fine one
is the east window with its three lancets containing respectively St.
Christopher carrying Christ, St. Ann instructing the youthful Mary, and
John the Baptist, while below and in the side compartments are the
donors, and in the central one a composition representing the Trinity.
Still more interesting is the embrasure containing the "Six Corporal
Acts of Mercy" with its engaging little groups, of which, perhaps, the
quaintest is the upper central one, "Giving Drink to the Thirsty." But
the most interesting of all, indeed a famous window, is the eastmost in
the north aisle. It is of the kind called "Bede" window from its showing
a bede or prayer for the donors. The fifteen small scenes under their
squatty canopies are a most interesting representation of the last
fifteen days of the world as recounted in the "Prick of Conscience" by
Richard Rolle, a learned and pious writer who died 1349. The story
begins at the lower left-hand corner and goes to the right. Notice the
careful realism of the timid worthies in the scene whose label describes
it as "ye XI day sal men come owt Of their holes and wende abowt."
In St. Dennis (Walmgate) the chief remnants of Perpendicular glass are
gathered in the central east window, but they are not to be compared
for excellence with their earlier neighbours. So, too, in St.
Martin-cum-Gregory the Perpendicular remains cannot vie with the
Decorated specimens. There is, however, a fine picture of St. George
killing the dragon in the central lancet of the westmost embrasure in
the south aisle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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