Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/161

 i. FEB. 13, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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to the members of the Eoyal Archseologica Institute, " under the auspices of the Very Reverend Canon Rock, the great English authority on textile fabrics and embroidery.' Canon Rock's remarks are given ; he speak of " this eucharistic garment," not of " these.' He refers to the finding of a carefully wrapt- up parcel containing a chasuble as having occurred about forty years ago (that would be about 1830), and of its having been given by the incumbent to the Catholic priest. Thus Kendrick speaks of a sale for a few shillings, but gives Canon Rock's statement of a gift. Canon Rock's description of the chasuble is so similar to Beamont's (p. 61), even to the extent of saying that there were three angels with chalices to receive the Saviour's blood, whereas there are two only, that it is pretty evident that one copied his description from the other.

_ Excepting for the two dates, 1824 and 1830, given by Beamont, everything points to his having intended to describe one chasuble only. There is, however, in the Ampleforth Journal (St. William's Press, Market Weigh- ton), vol. i. part ii., December, 1895, p. 185, an article by the Rev. J. S. Cody, O.S.B., mainly about two chasubles, "found a few years ago

in the Warrington Parish Church and

now in the possession of the Ampleforth

Benedictine Fathers in that town." The writer gives 1824 as the date of the discovery of the "double flight of stairs within the buttress on the north side." He says that on the steps leading to the crypt " the vest- ments were found carefully wrapped up." He speaks of Rawstorne as being the rector at that time, and says that he made no difficulty in handing the vestments over to Dr. Molyneux, O.S.B., the priest of St. Alban's, " for a certain sum of money." A good deal of the article is taken up with interesting extracts from ancient inventories which may possibly include amongst the possessions of the Warrington Church the very chasubles of which he writes. Further, he says that

"local tradition tells us how the Rector, on dis- covering them, seeing that he had no use for them, offered them to his friend Dr. Molyneux. He, shrewd man, would not accept them as a gift, lest they might be afterwards reclaimed, but bought them for a few shillings.''

He then proceeds, after he has previously said that the embroidery on both chasubles is very similar, and is of like workmanship, to describe apparently one only, of which as to the cross on the back an illustration is given.

I do not give his description, which is mainly (I think) quoted from the other

writers whom I have mentioned, nor do I give his identification of saints, for the same reason, and also for the reason that in most of the cases it appears in all the writers to be more or less guesswork. Mr. Cody speaks of two chasubles, but describes one, and that the one which Beamont describes in his two accounts, for in each of the two he ends with the figure with the axe. Mr. Cody, however, is exact in noticing the mistake as to the three angels instead of the actual two. On the other hand, he speaks of some sixty-five years past as " a few years ago."

I should still be inclined to think it certain that only one chasuble had been found on the stairs in 1824, which is the date given by Dr. Kendrick as that of the discovery of the old staircase (see a communication made by him to the Manchester Courier, 1839-40), but for the fact that by the courtesy of Father Whittle, O.S.B., the present priest of St. Al- ban's, I have been shown two chasubles. He knew Dr. Molyneux well, and insists that both chasubles came from the parish church. According to him, they were offered to Dr. Molyneux by the Hon. and Rev. Horace Powys (rector 1832-54, afterwards Bishop of Sodor and Man) as a gift. Dr. Molyneux, how- ever, insisted on making a payment pro forma, viz., half-a-crown. It has been asserted that the chasubles were found by Rector Powys in an oak chest. That may be so, but it in no way upsets the account given by Beamont that they, or it, had been found on the old staircase in Rawstorne's time, when Beamont was a young man. It is very likely that it, or they, were put into an oak chest in Rawstorne's time, ind found again in Powys's time. It has been asserted that it is certain that the transfer to Molyneux was a gift, and not a sale, the proof of which is that a son of Elector Powys remembers not only the oak chest in which they were found, but also Molyneux. The date assigned by the present rector (1835) for the finding of the hasubles would make that evidence very ?oor hearsay evidence, seing that Rector Powys did not marry till 1833. If the story that Molyneux paid half-a-crown for them yro forma is the true story, it is not at all mprobable that the vendor would afterwards speak of the transfer as a gift. As showing what confusion there is in the matter, I may mention that I have a recollection of jeing told by some one (by whom I do nob remember) that Rector Powys, having found a vestment in the vestry, and being short of money for some building scheme connected
 * hat his father gave the chasubles to Father