Read Ebook: Stained Glass Tours in England by Sherrill Charles Hitchcock

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 210 lines and 57752 words, and 5 pages

EARLY ENGLISH 21 EARLY ENGLISH TOUR 29 SALISBURY 30 CANTERBURY 36 LINCOLN 51 YORK 57

DECORATED 65 DECORATED TOUR 75 YORK 76 NORBURY 82 SHREWSBURY 85 LUDLOW 92 HEREFORD 96 TEWKESBURY 100 DEERHURST 104 BRISTOL 107 WELLS 114 EXETER 120 DORCHESTER 124 OXFORD 129

PERPENDICULAR 135 PERPENDICULAR TOUR 140 OXFORD 142 FAIRFORD 148 CIRENCESTER 154 GLOUCESTER 158 GREAT MALVERN 166 LITTLE MALVERN 172 ROSS 174 WARWICK 177 COVENTRY 181 YORK 185 SALISBURY 192 WINCHESTER 195 ST. NEOT 203

RENAISSANCE 209 RENAISSANCE TOURS 214 LONDON 216 CAMBRIDGE 223 LICHFIELD 230 GUILDFORD 236 GATTON 239 KNOLE 242

ITINERARIES 251

LIST OF TOWNS 253

General Map 18

Map of Early English Tour 30

Canterbury, "Becket's Crown" 36 Thirteenth century medallions; notice circular and other forms enclosing the figures. The heavy iron bars needed to support the great weight of lead are skilfully adjusted to the design. The world-famous shrine stood in the centre of this space. Tombof Black Prince in foreground, and above it armour he wore at Cr?cy.

Lincoln, Rose Window 56 Tracery unusual in that it does not radiate from centre. Quantity of greenish grisaille used emphasises leaf-like design. Thirteenth century medallions in the tall lancets below.

York Minster, "Five Sisters" 62 Softly toned grisaille, with delicate patterns in faint colour. Of its type unsurpassed in the world. Note difference between mellow strength of this glass and thinness of modern glazing in upper tier of lancets.

Map of Decorated Tour 76

York Minster, Chapter-House 78 Note the grouping together in each embrasure of five narrow lights below gracefully elaborated tracery openings. Later on, in the Perpendicular period, these traceries lose their individuality, become stiffly regular, and part of the window below.

Tewkesbury Abbey, Choir 100 A rare example of rounded apse, generally replaced in England by a square-ended chancel. Chief charm of these windows is their rich colouring.

Wells, "Golden Window" 116 Notice graceful setting, permitting a glimpse through into the Lady chapel beyond. The large Tree of Jesse, rising from the loins of the patriarch, is portrayed in colours of almost barbaric richness.

Exeter, East Window 122 Perpendicular stone frame, glazed chiefly with very typically decorated figure-and-canopy glass preserved from the earlier and smaller window. Below and beyond appears the Lady chapel.

Map of Perpendicular Tour 140

Oxford, New College Antechapel 144 Transition window, presented by William of Wykeham, Founder of the College. Stone frames are already Perpendicular: note the "pepper-box" tracery lights. The glazing, as usual, lags behind the architecture, and, because of its strong colour and flat drawing, is more Decorated than Perpendicular.

Gloucester, Choir 162 Great east window commemorative of knights who fought at Cr?cy. Backgrounds of pink and soft blue. Tracery lights no longer differentiated from window below, as during Decorated period. Note elaborate masking of earlier walls by later Perpendicular work.

York Minster, East Window 188 Tremendous sheet of colour, 78 by 32 feet. Lower half of stone frame built in a double plane, and carries a gallery across face of the glass.

Winchester, Nave 200 The excellent effect produced by the Fifteenth Century fragments with which this window is glazed proves that colour is more important than design in glass. Note swerving to right and left of two principal mullions, thus relieving a monotony of upright lines.

Map of Renaissance Tours 214

London, St. George's, Hanover Square 220 A Renaissance Tree of Jesse from Belgium, readjusted to fit its new embrasures. Figures unusually large for this subject. Fine colours and drawing.

Lichfield, Lady Chapel 232 Excellent example of Renaissance colouring, freer from applied paint than then customary. This glass was brought from Belgium.

Guildford, Bishop Abbott's Hospital 240 Charming and complete glazing of a small chapel. Renaissance glass coloured by the process of enamelling, often unsatisfactory because bits are apt to peel off.

STAINED GLASS TOURS : : IN ENGLAND : :

INTRODUCTION

The errand of a window seems always to have been that of beauty, although it has more than one way of performing that service. Sometimes it seems to have chosen the inspiring manner of recalling ancient wars, as would appear from the "Dreme" of Chaucer:

"And sooth to sayn, my chamber was Full well depainted, and with glass Were all the windows well y-glazed Full clear, and not an hole y-crazed, That to behold it was great joy: For wholly all the story of Troy Was in the glazing y-wrought thus, Of Hector, and of King Priamus; Of Achilles, and of King Laomedon, And eke of Medea, and of Jason; Of Paris, Helen, and of Lavine."

Sometimes the errand is that of beauty alone, so "mystic, wonderful," as to make it seem that magic was invoked to yield so fair a result. In his "Earthly Paradise" Morris voices this feeling:

"Folk say, a wizard to a northern king At Christmastide such wondrous things did show, That through one window men beheld the spring, And through another saw the summer glow, And through a third the fruited vines a-row, While still, unheard, but in its wonted way, Piped the drear wind of that December day."

Again, the errand of the window may have been not so much that of a story-teller, nor of a beautiful object to regale one's eyes withal, but rather to tint and temper the illumination of some holy place like that described in the "Lay of the Last Minstrel" :

"The silver light, so pale and faint, Show'd many a prophet and many a saint, Whose image on the glass was dyed; Full in the midst, his Cross of Red Triumphant Michael brandished, And trampled the Apostate's pride. The moonbeam kissed the holy pane, And threw on the pavement a bloody stain."

Beyond the enjoyment and artistic refreshment to be obtained from the contemplation of stained glass, who shall say that we do not receive other benefits, the nature of which are as yet undiscovered? It is only recently that our learned brothers, the scientists, have acquainted us with the helpful qualities of those rays of light which, in the language of the spectrum, are "out beyond the violet." In this connection, it may be edifying to quote from the "Anecdotes and Traditions" of Aubrey: "The curious oriental reds, yellows, blews, and greens in glasse-painting, especially when the sun shines, doe much refresh the spirits. After this manner did Dr. R. revive the spirits of a poor distracted gentleman, for whereas his former physitian shutt up his windows and kept him in utter darknesse, he did open his window lids, and let in the light, and filled his windows with glasses of curious tinctures, which the distempered person would always be looking on, and it did conduce to the quieting of his disturbed spirits."

When one pauses to consider how fragile the beauty of a stained glass window, it becomes amazing that even so much as we can now visit has survived. Over every European country there has, at one time or another, swept a wave of destruction engulfing things artistic. The causes for, as well as the agents of, this iconoclasm, differ widely. Sometimes it comes from within, and is the result of civil war or of religious fanaticism--less often it is the result of foreign invasion.

English windows had the good fortune to escape the destruction by foreigners which the French had to suffer during those dreadful fourteenth and fifteenth centuries when the Hundred Years' War outlasted its title, and when the hot-headed Plantagenet kings kept France continually plagued with English soldiery. Although we must record this particular immunity, other agencies equally baleful were at work. The Puritans made a practice of smashing stained glass, either because they regarded it as one of the hated insignia of popery , or for reasons of revenge, as in the case of the troops infuriated by the death of their leader in the assault upon Lichfield. Dwellers within the precincts of Lincoln made a common practice of shooting with crossbows at the windows! At Great Malvern the possible excuse of crossbow practice is missing; the villagers quite simply amused themselves by throwing stones at the great east window, just from the sheer joy of destruction. In some instances, even the mitigating circumstances of religious fanaticism, revenge, competitive sport, or even amusement are entirely lacking. Aubrey tells us in his "History of Surrey," that "At a later date, one Blesse was hired for half-a-crown a day to break the painted glass windows of Croydon." Little wonder is it that the citizens of York should have voted Fairfax, the leader of the Roundheads, a tun of wine, &c., in reward for his protecting care of the cathedral after he and his soldiers had captured that city.

It is clear from many an entry in ancient English church archives that French glaziers were often in the early days summoned across the Channel, and that it is to them that we owe the beginning of English glass; but we shall see that although it owes its origin to this foreign assistance, it developed along distinctly original lines, and that therefore the English glaziers deserve full credit for the charming traits peculiar to them.

Although the period styled Early English has left comparatively few examples north of the Channel, and cannot hope to vie with the many and rich displays of mosaic glass to be seen in France, we shall be greatly consoled by the splendid grisaille that fills the "Five Sisters" at York, and by the remains of the great series at Salisbury. We have just referred to the scarcity of French stained glass during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, those sorry days during which the English occupation of a large part of the country, repeated plagues, and uprisings of the lower classes against the nobles , vied with each other in the work of devastation. Indeed, it is not strange that any art so dependent upon the fostering care of a luxury-loving class should have been entirely superseded by the sterner requirements of self-defence, to say nothing of the repairs necessitated by the ravages of war, pestilence, and famine. Those two centuries, so dreadful to France and so discouraging to French glaziers, produced in England the greatest flowers of this craft. It is, therefore, clear that if one wishes to obtain a comprehensively consecutive knowledge of stained glass on both sides of the Channel, he must leave France and cross over to England when the thread of his studies has obtained so far as the Decorated and the Perpendicular. When, however, he reaches the sixteenth century he must return to France, to revel in the wealth of Renaissance glass so wofully lacking in England.

The duty of the glazier was to adorn the window embrasures constructed for him by the architect, and thus assist in the decoration of the church. It is obvious that the size and shape of these apertures must necessarily have had considerable, if not controlling, effect upon the styles and methods of the glazier. A glance at the conformation of these openings often tells the sub-divisions in which its glass belongs. During Norman times the window arch was round and the opening wide. In the Early English style the arch at the top becomes pointed and the embrasures narrower. When the Decorated time arrives several narrow lights are grouped together, separated only by slender stone mullions, and culminating under the pointed arch at the top in a group of gracefully adjusted small apertures called tracery lights. The Perpendicular architect did little but straighten out the lines of his predecessors, especially in the traceries, so that they, as well as the mullions, should produce the effect of upright parallels which gave this type its name. In the sixteenth century the Renaissance architect provided large windows, and the glazier filled them with great pictures of splendid colour.

In our investigation of English glass of the Early English period, we shall often find ourselves regretting the almost entire absence of rose windows, so frequent and splendid across the Channel, where those great blossoms of Gothic architecture provided such glorious opportunities for the decorating hand of the glazier. For this lack we shall later on find ample compensation in the huge sheet of glass filling the great east window of many English churches. While the southern architect decided in favour of the rounded apse for the east end of his cathedrals, his northern neighbour preferred a square ended one, thus permitting a fine broad embrasure, broken only by narrow mullions, and providing a golden chance for the glazier, which he lost no time in seizing. Therefore, if we miss the innumerable rose windows of France, it is but fair to state that it possesses nothing that can vie with the great expanse of glowing colour found at the east end of York or Gloucester or Malvern.

Those who desire to study this subject seriously should read Lewis F. Day's excellent "Windows of Stained Glass" .

TOURS

Our glass-hunting tours will take us into almost every part of England. We shall go up and down the east coast cathedrals, from York in the north to Canterbury in the south-east. We shall also wander through the entire range of southern counties, and see the whole coast from Winchester, west through Salisbury and Exeter to St. Neot, far off in Cornwall, hard by Land's End. But it will be in that corner of England which lies between Oxford and the Welsh border, that the greatest wealth of windows will be found. We shall arrange the tours so that the order in which the windows are viewed will conform chronologically with the stages of the craft's development. It will, of course, largely depend on whether he elects to travel by rail, by automobile, or by bicycle, just how slavishly the pilgrim follows the order in which the towns have been set out. The trips have been arranged with an eye to geography rather than to railway time-tables--geography is so much more stable than "Bradshaw's General Railway Guide"! The omission from the list of sundry important cathedrals, like Durham, Ely, Peterborough, Worcester, &c., is caused by the deplorable fact that all their ancient stained glass has been destroyed.

The order of towns is as follows:

Early English Epoch Salisbury, Canterbury, Lincoln, York.

Decorated Epoch York, Norbury, Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Hereford, Tewkesbury, Deerhurst, Bristol, Wells, Exeter, Dorchester, Oxford.

Perpendicular Epoch Oxford, Fairford, Cirencester, Gloucester, Great Malvern, Little Malvern, Ross, Warwick, Coventry, York. Salisbury. Winchester. St. Neot.

Renaissance Epoch London, Cambridge, Lichfield, Shrewsbury. Guildford, Gatton, Knole.

In selecting the order of the above itineraries, we have ended the first, or Early English period, at York, because that city is not only rich in early mosaic glass, but also in that of the Decorated period, thus making it most convenient for us there to begin the second or Decorated tour. In the same manner we have concluded the itinerary of the Decorated period at Oxford, for there are found not only Decorated, but also Perpendicular windows, thus permitting us to commence the Perpendicular tour in the same city which ends our Decorated one. York is set down as the last of the Perpendicular trip, but if our pilgrim has already visited that city on either the Early English or the Decorated tour, he will doubtless also have seen all of its Perpendicular glass, which will obviate the necessity for again making the long journey north. In that event, with York left out of the Perpendicular tour, it will prove to be much more condensed, both as to territory and distance, than either of the two earlier ones. The last, or Renaissance epoch, has but few examples in England, and these are so widely separated that it seems best to break them up into two tours. Of the seven places cited the best English glass is at London and Cambridge, while that at Lichfield is Flemish, and most of that at Shrewsbury German.

EARLY ENGLISH

EARLY ENGLISH TOUR

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet