Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/269

 ii 8. xii. OCT. 2, 1915.] IS! OTES AND QUERIES.

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French friar, Marin Mersenne, in his ' Har- monie Universelle ' (16367), devotes a special section to, and gives illustrations of, two kinds of " trompettes marines," stating that the instrument was so called either because it was invented by sailors or because it imitated the sound of a trumpet so well. This explanation may be good enough " for the marines," but does not satisfy any one else. L. L. K.

THE FABRIC OF CATHEDRALS. (11 S. xii. 200.)

THE stone used in building English cathedrals is for the most part local stone. The early builders were wise in many ways, and, wherever possible and advisable, they used local quarries. Some districts being almost stoneless, the line of least resistance was adopted. Your correspondent is quite correct in stating that the subject of materials has been neglected in nearly all books upon our cathedrals.

St. Paul's Cathedral is built of Portland stone. When Wren was building it he had the stone quarried and exposed on the beach (in some cases for three years) before using it. In " Parental ia ; or, Memoirs of

the Family of the Wrens but chiefly of

Sir Christopher Wren .... compiled by his son Christopher, London, 1750," folio, it is stated (p. 288) :

" At St. Paul's the Surveyor was cautious not to exceed columns of four feet, which had been tried by Inigo Jones in his Portico ; the Quarries of the Isle of Portland would just afford for that proportion, but not readily, for the artificers were forced sometimes to stay some months for one necessary stone to be raised for their purpose, and the farther the Quarry men pierced into the rock, the Quarry produced less stones than near the sea. All the most eminent masons of England were of opinion that stones of the largest scant- lings were there to be found, or nowhere. An inquiry was made after all the good stone which England afforded. Next to Portland, Bock Abbey stone, and some others in Yorkshire, seemed the best and most durable ; but large Stone for the Paul's works was not easily to be had even there."

Portland stone is one of the few stones which remain unaffected (except in colour) by the smoke of London. The best quality stone at Portland is that found in the north- eastern part of the island. Previous to 1623, this stone did not attract much atten-

tion ; but from about 1660 it has been greatly used in public buildings and churches. The quarries from which Wren obtained the stone for St. Paul's have now been deserted, the reason being that mer- chants found the stone harder, and therefore more expensive, to work than other qualities.

Wells Cathedral was built in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries from stone obtained from the quarries at Doulting, a village about seven miles east of Wells. The stone used at Glastonbury Abbey is identical. The "fabric rolls'* of Wells Cathedral are printed in abstract in the first volume of the Wells Report (1885) on Hist. MSS. On 16 April, 1390, payments are made to several men for carriage of stone "from Doultyng." The carriage of stone from these quarries is mentioned nine or ten times in the same year between April and June. In 1457 John Garnesy and John Tregadel we "guardians of the fabric"; and entries occur " For the rent of Doultyng quarry, 20s.," followed by several details of haulage from Doulting to Wells at " I2d. a load."

" To John Parsons ' pro ligatione ' of 16 feet square at Doultyng quary for 12 days at 4rf. a day."

See pp. 287-8 Hist. MSS. Comm. Report, 1885, and p. 291 of the Report dated 1907.

With reference to the early history of Wells, there is a " strong and consistent tradition " that missionary priests settled at Wells early in the eighth century, and here rose the first Church of St. Andrew. Original documents of Bishop Joscelin's time (1206- 1242) speak of the "old" church and the "great" church, but documentary evidence of actual building is difficult to find, so we make the most of what we know. The Close Rolls of Henry III. contain grants to the fabric in 1220 of sixty large oaks from the forest of Cheddar ; in 1224, of one penny a day remitted from the rent of Congresbury Manor " for the work at the church of Wells" ; and in 1226 of thirty oaks "for the fabric of the church of Wells." In 1220 Alexander, a Canon, gave for his life the produce of the arable land of the rectorial glebe at Henstridge, " that the fabric might rise the quicker, by my help." Original local documents at Wells give the names of a few of the workmen. Families of masons at Wells, of the names of Lock, father and son, Noreis or Norreys, and one Deodatus, a stone worker, are found both at Wells and at Glastonbury. A member of a family of the name of Buneton was established at