Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original 124 photographs and drawings. See 43530-h.htm or 43530-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43530/43530-h/43530-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43530/43530-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See http://archive.org/details/woodcarvingsinen00bondiala Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). A carat character is used to denote superscription. A single character following the carat is superscripted (example: R^d). The numbers of the original pages are enclosed in curly brackets to facilitate the use of the index. [Illustration: Beverley Minster] WOOD CARVINGS IN ENGLISH CHURCHES I.--Stalls and Tabernacle Work II.--Bishops' Thrones and Chancel Chairs by FRANCIS BOND M.A., Lincoln College, Oxford; Fellow of the Geological Society, London Honorary Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects Author of "Gothic Architecture in England," "Screens and Galleries in English Churches," "Fonts and Font Covers," "Westminster Abbey," "Misericords" Illustrated by 124 Photographs and Drawings Henry Frowde Oxford University Press London, New York, Toronto, and Melbourne 1910 {vii} PREFACE ------ The subject dealt with in this volume, so far as the writer knows, is virgin soil; no book has appeared, here or abroad, on the subject of stallwork. Abroad, the great mass of stallwork has perished; sometimes at the hands of pious vandals, often through neglect, more often still through indifference to or active dislike of mediaeval art. In the stallwork of Belgium not a single tabernacled canopy remains; in France and Italy the great majority of the Gothic stalls have been replaced by woodwork of the Classical design that was dear to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; only in Spain can the wealth and splendour of English stallwork be rivalled. In England a great amount of magnificent stallwork still remains; on the stallwork indeed and the concomitant screens time and labour and money were lavished without stint in the last two centuries of Gothic art. Hitherto, however, this important department of English mediaeval design has almost wholly lacked recognition and appreciation; attention had not been called to its value in the study of artistic woodwork, and even the most splendid examples of this branch of English art have been passed over with uncomprehending indifference. Yet it is no overstatement to say that there is nothing in this country more consummate in design or execution than the stallwork of Lancaster, Chester, Ripon, and Manchester. To most of the readers of this volume the illustrations which have been here gathered together will come as a revelation of beauty and interest. It is to be hoped that the book will help to inform those who are heritors