Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/379

10 s. x. OCT. 17,

NOTES AND QUERIES. with detached shafts, and abounding with the tooth ornament. It is obvious that this tower was made richer and richer as the work advanced, and, had it not stopped as it did, might have been another Boston. The buttresses are slender, and the strings are carried round them. Possibly this fine tower may have been erected as a landmark for travellers over the level country, which in the Middle Ages was, we know, generally flooded; and we can imagine that in the winter a beacon might have burnt on the summit. Gedney tower is also visible from the sea, now more distant than when the church was built.

The windows in the aisles are Decorated, with flowing and reticulated tracery. But the finest feature is the continuous clerestory, of no fewer than twelve windows on each side, each of three lights, divided by slender pilasters only, terminating in pinnacles. The top is battlemented, and the Sanctus-bell turret remains at the east. The porch, which is flanked by niches, retains the ancient oaken door, with this inscription carved upon it: "Pax Xti sit huic domui et omnibus habitantibus in ea requies nostra." The lock itself has the names of its donors cast upon it: "Botwari Bennion and John Page Ayston."

The interior of the church, as might be expected, has an area of great amplitude, and, except the chancel, is not restored. The arches are six on each side, with high octagonal columns, over which is a stringcourse, with corbels on which rest the principals of the roof—a very lofty one of the hammerbeam kind, with a double cornice of roses in oak and at all the crossings of the timbers. The tower arch, Early English, is a good one, but now unfortunately blocked by a wall, the space underneath being filled with lumber and quite dark. There are five bells.

At the east end of the north aisle is part of a Jesse window in coloured glass. Fragments of old glass also appear in other places, but nothing perfect. An altar-tomb supports some portions of a figure, the shield having the arms of D'Oyley; and a sixteenth-century screen, much restored, remains in situ. The chancel, which is light, lofty, and airy, has no special feature to speak of, save that it has north and south doorways and a low side window of two lights with tracery, and what appears to be the original grille on the outside. The windows are Decorated and good, but are restorations. A few poppy-headed seats remain in different parts of the church. The font is a small octagon, with angels holding shields on seven sides, and on the eighth an "Adoration" with the words "Mater Dei mem:" the rest broken away. The shaft is modern; the plinth bears the date 1664. In the south aisle is a second altar-tomb, every vestige of name being gone. At its base is the brass (life size) of a lady, c. 1390. Formerly this had a border of saints and fine canopy work, but the figure now alone remains. It is said the old reredos was removed from Gedney to Boston. {{left|{{fine|Addiscombe.|offset=2em}}

'The British Traveller,' by James Dugdale, LL.D., 1814, says:—

{{fine|"Gedney Church is worthy to be noticed, as the loftiest and most airy of any in this part of the country. It consists of a nave, chancel, north and south aisles, porch, and tower. The number of windows in this church is 53; of which those in the north aisle exhibit some fine specimens of painted glass. In the south door is seen a curious copperlock, bearing an ancient inscription; and over the door is carved in oak, in Saxon letters, the following: 'Pax Christi sit huic dqmui et omnibus inhabitantibus in ea; hie requies nostra'; and under four blank shields, in capitals In HOPE. Against a south window of the nave is a monumental effigies, sacred to Adlard Welley [? Welby], Esq., of Gedney, and Cassandra his wife."}}

The church is thought to have been built by the Abbots of Crowland. {{right|{{sc|J. Holden MacMichael.}}|offset=2em}}

Very good accounts of Gedney Church are to be found in the Associated Architectural Societies' papers, vol. xi. pp. 214-16, and vol. xxiv. pp. 117-22. {{float right|{{sc|St. Swithen.}}|offset=2em}}

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{{sc|The Glamis Mystery}} (10 S. x. 241).—The story of a monster, apparently immortal, in a secret chamber at Glamis Castle is, of course, one of several myths, invented to explain another myth, the story that the heir of Strathmore has to pass the night of his majority in the secret cell. Scott says nothing about that story in his 'Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft' (p. 398), but he knew the legend, and used it in 'The Betrothed' (1822). The cell, in 'The Betrothed,' contained a "Bargeist," whatever that may be.

Unluckily, I have mislaid my authority, but the tale of the heir and his night in a haunted and secret chamber was certainly current in the middle of the eighteenth century, about Vale Royal in Cheshire: it has merely been transplanted to Glamis.

From the "Glamis Papers, 'The Book of Record,' a Diary written by Patrick, first Earl of Strathmore" (1684-9), edited by Mr. A. H. Millar for the Scottish Historical Society (1889-90), I surmise that Earl Patrick