The Strife of the Roses and Days of the Tudors in the WestRogers, W. H. Hamilton (William Henry Hamilton)
History
The Strife of the Roses and Days of the Tudors in the West
Rogers, W. H. Hamilton (William Henry Hamilton)
Great Britain -- History -- Tudors, 1485-1603; Great Britain -- History -- Wars of the Roses, 1455-1485
Here we hope to find some memorials of Paveley, Cheney or Willoughby,
for our historic memory recalls to us, that within the fabric there is
a Chantry which was formerly attached to Broke Hall, and that its
windows were said to be filled with _rudders_ as at their old seat.
Our foot crosses the porch threshold, and with intuitive direction
leads us at once to the east end of the south aisle, where some
apparently well-preserved old oak screen-work, partition off what we
rightly divine was the Broke Chantry. But as we draw near a vision of
ominous newness, windows flaming with colour, and garish decoration of
costly kind spread over every part, puts to the rout at once all hope
of anything antient being found within it; and we learn that the
Chantry has been recently elaborately 'restored' as a memorial chapel
to the present owners of Broke, whose family have held its possession
for about a century.
We scan the enclosure minutely, but not a vestige of sculpture or
inscription, nor stray _rudder_ in the windows, was visible to
identify its olden founders, and whether any such had ever existed
within it, could not be ascertained. Foiled in our examination of the
Chantry, we proceed to look carefully over the whole of the spacious
interior of the edifice, but the search is vain.
There is yet one chance left, friend of mine, peradventure some stray
shield or badge memorizing these antient families may be found
outside. Slowly we perambulate the exterior of the structure, and were
just preparing to leave the churchyard precincts altogether
vanquished, when on the right dripstone termination of the label of
the doorway-arch of the little porch at the base of the west window,
there on a small shield very much denuded and weather-worn, we trace
the _four fusils in fess_ of Cheney, with the ghosts of _the
escallops_ faintly visible in their centres. On the shield to the left
is the indistinct outline of _a bird_ of some kind.
In his notice of Westbury church, Aubrey remarks:--
"In an aisle, north of the chancel where nothing remains of the
old glass, tradition is that two maydes of Brook built it
(probably Alice and Joan coheiresses of Sir John Paveley (1361)
of Brook,--the one married Sir John St. Loe, the other Sir John
Cheney). In a chappelle south of the chancell, are left in one
windowe some _Rudders of Ships_ or the cognizance of the Lord
Willoughby of Brook. In an aisle north of the tower, called
Leversidge aisle, were these two escutcheons now gone,
viz.--Cheney impaling Paveley, Cheney as before impaling _a lion
ramp_: quartering _a cross flory_, not coloured."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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