Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/192

 144 THE ROOD-SCREEN, PRIORY CHURCH, The position which the rood-screen now occupies does not appear to have been its original site. The first pier of the nave arcade west of the centre lantern is deficient of its pro- jecting semicircular shafts ; there are also some additional ornaments in this compartment of the triforium, which would seem to indicate that the choir at a former period had in- cluded the first bay of the nave. This was the arrangement of St. Mary's abbey, Tewkesbury, and in early churches the choir always occupied the central tower, and sometimes ex- tended even several compartments to the west of the tower, as at Westminster abbey. It is not intended by these remarks to assert that the actual screen here spoken of was removed, but that under some previous state of the building, when perhaps the old choir was standing, a rood-screen of earlier date divided the choir and nave in a more westward position. To revert, however, to the description of the screen itself, the least successful part of its composition is the doorway of communication to the choir and staircase ; its square-headed form does not harmonize with the general design, and rather conveys the idea of its being an after-thought, although the flat soffit is pleasingly panelled. Traces still remain where the gates or doors which enclosed the choir once hung, but all the ancient wood-Avork has been destroyed. On the north side of this passage through the screen is a narrow stone staircase ascending to the rood-loft ; of the maur ner in which the east side of this gallery (above the canopies of the stalls) terminated, we are left to conjecture, as the whole of the upper portion was swept away many years since to make room for an organ ; but it was most probably finished with a pierced parapet in the manner of the screen at Wells cathedral erected about the same period. The screen has some slight traces of ancient colouring still left, and when in former times the niches were filled with statues its whole effect must have been gorgeous ; indeed the priory church at Christchurch could boast of screens equal to those of any other church in the country ; its high altar- screen containing a representation of the genealogy of Jesse is quite unique, and the reredos in the lady-chapel well wor- thy of admiration. The massiveness of these stone screens forms a great con- trast to the extremely light and elegant character of the