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
English, and may also be seen at Nettlestead and West Wickham in Kent.
So pleased were the parishioners with these two types that, when some
new windows were presented in 1528-29-30 (now seen along the north
wall), the glazier did not work in the then prevailing Renaissance
method, but designed his story of St. Neot's life after the earlier
many-scened type, as well as copying some of them after that of the
bracketed saints. One of these sixteenth century windows was presented
by the young men of the parish, another by the young women, a third by
the married women, and the rest by private individuals or families.
Below the two given by the married and the unmarried women are a row of
kneeling donors which afford an interesting study of female costume. In
the south wall is a window given by the Mutton family. Here the glazier
did not copy earlier types, but struck out along a new line, making a
very graceful use of winding scrolls. Extremely pleasing as is the
effect of all these windows, the result would have been even more
gratifying had it not been for a restoration which befell the church in
1820, and which, when it subsided, left behind it not only three
unsatisfactory new windows, but also certain misguided retouchings of
the old ones. Even this gentle criticism must not be allowed to affect
the fact that the _ensemble_ of the interior here is delightful and one
of the most complete in England. Nor is this general effect one whit
less engaging than the host of quaint details revealed by a close
investigation of the glass, especially in the case of the Noah window
(most easterly of the south wall), and that devoted to St. Neot (most
westerly of the north wall). The mediæval idea of Noah's Ark is very
diverting, as is also the artist's idea of how most of his wild animals
must have looked. Then, too, the attention paid by good St. Neot to the
sacred fish which his over-zealous servant had wickedly roasted and
broiled is most entertaining. For beauty, and for interest as well,
this noteworthy set of windows in far-off Cornwall amply repay the
length of the trip necessary to seek them out.
RENAISSANCE
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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