The Cathedrals of Great Britain: Their History and ArchitectureDitchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
History
The Cathedrals of Great Britain: Their History and Architecture
Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
Cathedrals -- Great Britain; Church architecture -- Great Britain
The inventory of 1402 supplies some curious information as to the
manner in which the numerous and costly vestments were arranged when
not in use. In the treasury, on the west, stood a wardrobe,
_armariolum_, in which were twenty-four _perticæ_, pegs, or rods, or
frames, from which the copes and chasubles could be suspended, one
_pertica_ holding from three to six copes. The vestments were arranged
according to colour. Three other wardrobes were also stored with
goodly vestments, and there were twenty-six in daily use. The total is
179 copes, fifty-one chasubles and ninety-two tunicles, and the
colours were red, purple, black, white, green, yellow, blue, red mixed
with blue.
We have remarked that St. Paul's was the centre of the social life of
the people in olden days, which led to some abuses.
Francis Osborn says, "It was the fashion in those days, and did so
continue until these, for the principal gentry, lords and courtiers,
and men of all professions, to meet in St. Paul's by eleven of the
clock, and walk in the middle aisle till twelve, and after dinner from
three to six, during which time they discoursed of business, others of
news."
Shakespeare represents Falstaff in _Henry V._ as having "bought
Bardolph in Paul's"; and Dekker thus speaks of the desecration of the
sanctuary, "At one time in one and the same rank, yea, foot by foot,
elbow by elbow, shall you see walking the knight, the gull, the
gallant, the upstart, the gentleman, the clown, the captain, the
apple-squire, the lawyer, the usurer, the citizen, the bankrout, the
scholar, the beggar, the doctor, the idiot, the ruffian, the cheat,
the Puritan, the cut-throat, highman, lowman and thief; of all trades
and professions some; of all countries some. Thus while Devotion
kneels at her prayers, doth Profanation walk under her nose in
contempt of Religion."
Here lawyers received their clients; here men sought service; here
usurers met their victims, and the tombs and font were mightily
convenient for counters for the exchanges of money and the transaction
of bargains, and the rattle of gold and silver was constantly heard
amidst the loud talking of the crowd.
Gallants enter the Cathedral wearing spurs, having just left their
steeds at "The Bell and Savage," and are immediately besieged by the
choristers, who have the right of demanding spur-money from anyone
entering the building wearing spurs.
Nor are the fair sex absent, and Paul's Walk was used as a convenient
place for assignations. Old plays are full of references to this
practice.
Later on the nave was nothing but a public thoroughfare, where men
tramped carrying baskets of bread and fish, flesh and fruit, vessels
of ale, sacks of coal, and even dead mules and horses and other
beasts. Hucksters and pedlars sold their wares.
Duke Humphrey's tomb was the great meeting-place of all beggars and
low rascals, and they euphemistically called their gathering "a dining
with Duke Humphrey."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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