An Old English Home

rch the religious centre of the parish. In a considerable number of cases it certainly occupies the pl

later and exclusively Christian foundation, and were then plant

his own stuff, manufactured at a distance, the whole executed by a strange contractor employing strange workmen. The village people have done nothing towards it, but have looked on to see the monumental slabs of their forefathers torn up, some sawn in half and employed to line drains, the fre

leave things alone, than put them into the hands of strangers? In my own neighbourhood is a church, Bridestowe, that had a beautiful wood screen. An incumbent gave up this church to a restorer. He cut down the scree

ove all, cheaply. He destroyed the entire screen, and left the church a horror to behold. Now the present rector has recovered a few poor fragments of the screen a

Kenton to see the church. I found in it not only one of the finest screens in the county, but also the very

PULPIT

1

1

. It had been put into the hands of an architect to "restore," and he had restored th

house and questioned the master about it. He said that he believed there was some old carving in a cupboard-and there we found it, with dusters, old reading books, a dirty sponge, and any amount of cobwebs and filth. The rector kindly allowed me to carry away the scraps, and with th

-GOTHIC PU

nd others who put their poor chur

en pulpits, that are the admiration of visitors and the pride of sacristans. They are enormous erections of o

allegorical figures; above whose heads trees intertwine, with birds among the branches, and a

tone. A pulpit of iron is said to have existed formerly in the Cathedral at Durham; a

the dawn of an aluminium age. That will have one advantage; it will see the close of the epoch of Bath-stone and marble p

e pulpit is of stout oak. When the fancy was that the preacher should be high up, then the end of the post was planted on the ground. Then came the fashion that it should be low, accordingly a deep hole was sunk with a pick under the base, and the post lowered into it. Presently it was considered that the lowness of the pulpit was too co

as to work upon a screw to adapt the height within the pulpit to the occupant. The pulpit was circular internally, and as the screw turned it turned the floor round. The parish clerk was vastly pleased at the ingenuity and convenience of this arrangement, and considered that the reopening of the church demanded imperatively the exhibition of the new mechanism. He waited

ee how the mechanism worked, and then with renewed energy he fell to at the crank, and round w

t somehow, rose to his fe

ion, and ended it presenting his back to them. Not only so, but he was obviou

book-board and sides of the pulpit seemed to be sinking away from him. A sense of nausea, of sea-sickness, came over the ri

stry, threw himself on the crank, and worked it backwards with a vigour truly admirable, but with the result that

at on this occasion the eloquence

in a position to say. I tell the

ol, had a spring contrivance at the back of his pulpit, into which he co

es that are carried into pews occupied by

esk, supposed it to be a shelf or bracket, and put the glasses on it, whereupon down shot the spectacles and blocked the tube. Another, who had been provided with a

itsun Eve. We tried the doors of a large church, and found them locked, with the exceptio

arnest pastoral address. I thought this very odd, as no one was in the church save an old sacr

ook at the pictures in the south aisle, when we saw a young curé in the pulpit, gesticulating, pouring forth a fervid address to his dearly beloved brethren-who were conspicuously absent. Suddenly the preacher was aware of an English gentleman and lady as audience. He paused, lost the thread of his discourse, put his han

ic church. It came about in this way. I was at Innsbrück when the marriage took place o

for there was no seeing the bride at all for the crowd. Beside me were two very well-dressed ladies who were extremely

o the other, "this will never do.

that to be done? We cannot get

ed, I simply must see the cer

are women standing on the

a matter of life or

t h

the pu

rked a way for themselves with their elbows, using them like fins, through the crowd towards this particular door. I watched them. No one else had thought of invading the pulpit. Through the door t

would place both his hands on the rail, and swing the upper portion of his body over when he sought to be impressive. Unhappily, for a great festival, he invited by letter a stranger, whom he had never seen, to preach for him. On the arrival of the strange preacher, he proved to be a very small man indeed. Still, I do not think it occurred to the incumbent to make provision, nor

ttle man had to maintain his equilibrium-or seek to maintain it, not always successfully, as at intervals one hassock would slip away, wh

cal in his appearance. The only occasion on which I went to service there this odd little man mounted the pulpit with great solemnity and gave out as his text: "I am fear

, and it is hard to find an ancient church in which the voice does not travel easily. The forming of square and high pews no doubt did much to interfere with ease in preaching, as every such pew became a trap for catching the waves of sound. Con

s a token of his regard. The native replied that there was one thing he and his people craved for with all the ardour of their fiery tropical blood-and this was a pulpit. In the island of Rumtifoo visible in the offing, the converts had a very fine pulpit in their chapel, but here in this island was none; would Mr. X-- give

wood boards were to be had except some old champagne cases. These cases we

to complete it, and that was a book-desk. Accordingly this was fashioned out of some more pieces of t

le, an impartial eye. Both agreed that it would not quite do as it was, for on the boards composing the sides were drawn

painted," sa

onded the sailor. "It don

l's enamel was in the island of Rumtifoo, and the chief managed to negotiate an exchange-wh

hter the better, thought my friend; and he and the sailor proceeded

opened, and he sent to the island of Kokabundi for a native eva

mmed with native Christians, and the pr

ubject, and then he laid hold of the book-desk and swung himself about, and ban

elf from side to side, he almost precipitated himself over the edge, he grappled with the flanks, and pulled this way, that way, till-crack! smas

oist, not to say sticky, and the paint came off on his fingers and palms, and as he wiped his face, dripp

cher banged on the desk, the native males in sympathy banged on each other's pates as well. Some screamed, some fell on their backs and kicked. Indeed, never since the conversion of the island had t

ery at the west end of the church,

ooks back with self-reproach. Such a mistake was that which

asked that I would restore the old instrumental music in

had to consider this. I considered, moreover, the agonies I had endured as a boy fro

d. Afterwards I learned from a superior farmer's wife, that, having heard of the purpose of the deputation to call on me, at the firs

e true that the performances were torturing to the ear that was educated, nevertheless they were the best that the village musicians could produc

oolmistress, an importation; and, after all, a harmonium is an odi

eir abolition. I am sure that many a parson would have gone on enduring, having his ears tortured and his

ra for intemperate proceedings-leaving bottles of ale and spirits, or rather leaving bottles that had contained these liquors-in the gallery after practice night. Sometimes the strikes were against the cond

elieve that there will be music in heaven, for if there be music there, there must

source of trouble to the parson, and if he seized on a means of establ

orchestra was taken by the introduction of t

two elements of difficulty in it. In the first place, if this tune were not turned on we would be one tune the poorer in divine service. But it was intolerable that any psalm should be sung to "The Devil's Hop." After much consideration

the early Polar expeditions. Whilst he was absent, a cousin kept a diary of the daily doings at home, for his entertainm

occurs t

west gallery, in place of the old orchestra. I listened and thought it very beautiful, but I do

is long since dead. What would she hav

that cost about ￡20, sometimes even less. Horrible little things they were, broken-winded, giving ou

ent on the Sunday in which it was to be "opened." But alas! It had opened itself in an unexpected and irremediable manner-irremediable

ng was heard save the puffs. Then the clerk left his desk and went to the gallery to open an inquiry. Presently, after much whispering and knocking about of seats in the gallery, the cler

he choir had to sustain the burden of the singing unsupported. And sometimes when the organ or

m the "Messiah." Bless you, my dear readers! they were not timorous and hesitating in those days any more than in these,

to. So she did not attend. The alto had been invited "with her young man" to a friend's at a distance, therefore she could not attend, and the bass had been out carolling all night and drinking ale, and was hoarse

n the contrast between the church as it is now and what it was fifty years ago, as I remember it. I was then in it on a Sunday. There were no carved benches then, but tall deal pews. There was no organ: there was an orchestra in the west gallery, and the clerk was first violin therein. But his duties required that he should sit near the reading-desk at the chancel arch. Now, when it came to the givin

e psalm, he read out two lines audibly. Whereupon choir and congregation sang those two lines. Then he gave out two more lines, and those were

i?val churches there was a very rich and elaborately carved wood screen between the chancel and the body

and this signified that the way into the Holiest Place was open to all, and that death ceased to be the impenetrable mystery it had been; since Christ, by His death, had overcome death,

much as by faith we can look through and beyond the barrier of death, the screens were made of carved work pierced through, so that the chancel with the altar might be perfectly visible beyond the screen. And inasmuch as death wa

ON ROOD

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1

coast of Devon, when I visited the very fine parish church of Coombe Martyn. This noble church possesses an exceedingly fine rood

in the church, came up to me and said: "Please, your honour

my doubt tha

't been meddled wi' by them blessed restorers, you'll find for sure sartain that the oak

od had swelled, and th

n. "If you look close, you'll see

question never could have been fastened. I admitted this,

"I've looked at scores, and they was all

dd," said I, st

n purpose," sa

out with hi

For sure sartain the chancel means heaven, and the body of the church means airth. And then, doan't it say in Scriptur, 'The gates shall not be shut at all?' Very well, if the chancel be meant

at during Lent all images were to be veiled or covered with wraps. Accordingly, on the top of the screens were galler

as furnished with a back to the west, against which the performers might lean, and which concealed them from the congregation in the nave. These backs have for the mos

inental churches, where in many places the screens have been mutilated or removed, the choirs still occupy their old places. For instance, at Bruges, where the screen in the cathedral is reduced to a mere block of black and white

the gallery-back above the screen. In cathedrals this gap was filled up with the o

was not forgotten. The priest now occupied the reading-desk, and as this was very generally in the body o

ndered the musical portion of divine service moved with it. Hence it came about that in a vast majority of case

west gallery is gone, whither is the organ to go? Where is the choir to be put? The choirs are now very genera

g it up on all sides but one. Naturally, the organ objected to this treatment. It was made to occupy an open sp

pes prevented the waves from flowing. It was found that organs in this position did not give forth a volume of sound commensurate with their cost and size,

did not support the congregation in their singing. It roared and boomed in the ears of the choir; and if the service is to be an elaborate performance, in which the congregation ta

es there is a talk of moving ba

ame cost that will move an organ from one end of a church to another. Hundreds on hundreds of pounds hav

ontrary to what has been done, the hardest of lessons to acquire, and that entailing most self-restraint,

ld church, something must be

lage with a queerer name, Corpsnuds, in the French Landes, on Midsummer-day. From the quaint church-tower sounded the most extraordinary clatter of bells, without sequence and without harmony. Moreover, from the top of the tower fluttered an equally extraordinary fla

red the belfry, to ascertain what p

hot, very red, profusely perspiring, racing about t

on his sleeve. I asked him how it was tha

in a knot of the rope, among the bells, and as I whisk the rope abou

augustly above the towe

fe slit them; we have no parish flag, so I said-allons! mes pantalons. Ther

swell and fall of the bells, the music always having a certain sadness in it. But it has its sordid side, as has

s so much apart from the church that it ceased to be regarded as pertaining to it, or being included within its sacred atmosphere. Accordingly the ringers conducted themselves in the belfry as they saw fit. They introduced pipes, als

ed in the belfry, but that they might have access to it w

had rung a peal before Divine Service. Their ringing ended, they would withdraw to the road o

ector with the reforming spirit in him, and he resolved to put matters to right. Hitherto the belfry key had been retained by the sexton, a prime offender. The parson demanded it

the ringers, and an anonymous le

wot your about and let we ring the bells as pla

dated. That night he went to th

ngers arrived, and he heard them discuss him and h

ter? Wot do that mean but that he's sent by the b

' in words if that ain't

ass'n-ridden,"

pen the door,"

t his little head open," said a f

ang against t

e to the door, just large enough for a man to

it off," said the blacksmith. "I'v

the window, and said, "Will you? Here

ew back di

shed his authority over the ringer

may be found anywhere, and some of the old lot are still there. The first s

thrown open, so that the bell-ringers were visibly in the church, and so came

oming himself a ringer, or, if not that, taking a lively interest in the rin

signify an adult female; two, two, three, a male infant; two, two, two, a female child. These strokes are then followed by as many as there were years in the age of the deceased. At Dewsbury and at Horbury, near Wakefield, on

was greatly shocked and distressed, for I had not heard that anyone was ill in the parish,

exton. I counted the strokes-three, three, three: t

waited impatiently the

from the tower,

who is

and answered, "T

ho is

wd c

He must be ve

ut for sure he'll

ay that my vicar expla

e Thomas Nash, in 1813, bequeathed ￡50 a year to the ringers of the Abbey Church, Bath, "on condition of their ringing on the whole peal of bells, with clappers muffled, various solemn and doleful changes on the 14th of May in ev

illage of Horningsham, Wilts, where, at the burial of a

ed to the belfry and "ring himself in." It is, I believe, universal in England for the parishioners to count the

es in the belfries, and these have taken the shape of ale-jugs. At Hadleigh, in Suffolk, is su

ann, Adam Sage, George Bond, Thomas Go

e names are

ve me doe

n and keep

ull, or n

ong, and not

is still preserved in the church

ndon I w

nly dot

ith this

ed with st

the pitchers

at holds thirty-five pints. At Clare is a similar jug that holds over seven

e to ring on the most unsuitable occasions, as when a "long main" at cock-fighting had been won. Church bell

that the Earl of Pembroke his

sual to announce its arrival by ringing the church bells, that all such as had

e street, with its peal of ten, "Here's fine fresh fish just come into the town. Here's fine fresh fish just come into the town." Close by All Saints' stood St. Michael's, with but three bells, and one of them

tained-glass window that represents St. Oudoc, Bishop of Llandaff, with a golden yellow bell at his side. The story is told of him that he was one day thirsty, and passing some women who were washing clothes, he asked of them a draught of water. They answered laughingly that the

The seagulls fluttered over him, and bore him to a ledge of rock, where they made a bed for him of the feathers from their bre

moniously; but the "sweet bells" can be "jangled out of tune" not only by the failure of