Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/330

300 they are usually but not invariably in this direction. There can be little doubt that their purpose was to enable some person or persons to see the elevation of the Host, but whether any members of the congregation indiscriminately, or some particular person, is not so clear. It has been conjectured that their object was to enable the priests at the side altars and in the chantries to take part in the service, and that when the holy Eucharist was administered to very large congregations, the bread or wafers which had been consecrated at the high altar were first divided into portions and carried to each of the side altars, and from thence distributed to the communicants, by which means a much larger number were enabled to communicate simultaneously. The revival of this practice has even been recommended in the English Church, for our large metropolitan churches, and if the number of communicants increases in proportion to the congregations, some such practice appears to be very desirable.

Whether such was the purpose of these openings or not, affords a curious subject for the investigation of ritualists, but whatever their use may have been, the object of the present paper is merely to call attention to the great variety of plan, of form, and of design which they exhibit. They are found at all periods, from the earliest Norman to the latest Perpendicular, and they vary as much in size as in form. In some instances the object must have been to see the celebrant at a chantry altar only, without reference to the high altar at all, and some are so small that one person only could look through the opening at the same time. In such cases it has been conjectured that this was to enable the sacristan to see the elevation of the Host, and ring the sanctus-bell at the proper moment. In other cases the openings were so large and afforded such direct aspect from the nave to the altar, that they would appear to have been intended for the use of the congregation, and as a mode of remedying the inconvenience arising from the small size of the chancel-arch. A remarkable instance of this kind occurs at Ashley church, Hampshire, in early Norman work. See p. 299. In this case the squints are nearly of as wide a span as the chancel-arch itself. The same arrangement occurs also at Littleton. In the neighbouring church of Crawley, there