Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/443

ii B. xii. DEC. 4, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

435 superiore domo eiusdem ordinata pro libraria destructa et deturpata per columbas et alios volucres, vs." (1457-8, 'custus capelle').

Now, the linking together of these two entries was a mistake; for the first of them has nothing to do with the upper room of the Chantry: it relates to the original library of the College, the room (above "Audit-room") which,, in more modern times and before it became the lumber-room that it now is, was the " Cheese-room " on its dusty floor, that was long ago robbed of its tiles, still lie the stone weights and the remains of the scales with which the cheeses used to be weighed. This room, called "Vetus libraria" in the Accounts of 1562-3, is thus mentioned in Fromond's lifetime:

"In solut. cuidam pictori ad depingendam celuram [the ceiling] librarie et ad faciendam Salutacionem Angeli ad Mariana hoc anno, xxxiijs. iiijd." (1410-11, 'custus domorum cum necessariis').

"In pavyngetyell emptis apud Neubury hoc anno pro pavimento librarie una cum eisdem ponendis et expensis positoris in hospicio in SoKa per v noctes, xxvs. \d. In dictis pavynge- tiell cariandis a Neubury usque Wynton., xija. " (1411-12, 'custus domorum oum neces- sariis').

On the other hand, the roll of 1457-8 is not the earliest which records the use for which the upper room of the Chantry was designed. In the Accounts of 1438-9 the series of entries relating to the provision of doors for the building begins thus:

"Et solut. Johanni carpentario London, laboranti circa facturam valvarum hostii capelle Fromond, hostii librarii in eadem capella et valvarum hostii Claustri ad Gardinum per xxiiij dies, capitjperdiem vd., absque prandio, xs." ('custus domorum').

7. The Hall-book of 1430-1 furnishes the first references that I have met with to the work of erecting Fromond's Chantry, and we learn from them that at that time the building was being given its roof. The diary in this book for the 3rd week of the 1st quarter runs:

"Die Martis. Dominus Nicholaus North ad prandium et ad cenam cum sociis. Sex alie persone venientes cum plumbo pro collegio et capella Fromond ad prandium et ad cenam cum famulis."

These six persons dined again on the next two days. Then on the Friday two dined who were there to receive payment for the lead:

"Die Veneris. Dominus Nicholaus North ad prandium cum sociis. Et duo atii venientes pro pecuniis pro plumbo predicto habendis ad prandium cum famulis."

Under the Friday of the following week the scribe wrote down 1: "quidam cooperiens

muros capelle Fromond ad prandium cum famulis," an entry which, though it was- afterwards struck out, tells us that the work of roofing the Chantry was then in. progress. The cause of the striking out i& not unfathomable: the cost of the workman's dinner was disallowed, inasmuch as the- expense of building the Chantry was being borne, not by the College, but by Fromond's executors. The feeding, as in the preceding week, of persons who had come partly ort College and partly on Chantry business was,, on the other hand, permissible, especially as their meals were taken into account when the lead which they had brought was being paid for:

"Emptio plumbi. In solut. pro i vother [i.e., fother : see the 'N.E.D.'] cc. di. c. et i quarta plumbi empt. mense Octobris, vili. xyis. viiid, Et in solut. pro v votherys et ccc. libris plumbi empt. hoc anno, precio vother vUi., xxxZt. xs. et non plus quia residuum remittitur propter refectiones quas habuerunt ducentes predictum plumbum ad vices hoc anno et continet i vother xixc. et di. c. [a fother contains 19* cwt.]." ~ Account-re 11, 1430-1.

The above explanation of the striking out of an entry in 1430-1 may be thought also to supply the reason why the Bursars do- not mention the Chantry until we come to the consecration of its altar in 1437. Up to that point, so far as one can judge from the Accounts, the College, as distinct from Warden Thurbern in his capacity of one of Fromond's executors, had been the passive- spectators of a work which might or might not be brought to a successful issue.

8 I have already mentioned (ante, p. 295) that doors for the Chantry were supplied in 1438-9 and that the glazing of the windows was being done in 1443-4. There were certain other works which were probably not taken in hand until after the consecra- tion. One was the carving of the bosses in- the groined roof, but all that I propose to say here about those bosses (which were coloured under John Oldrid Scott's super- impendence in 1898) is that they cannot possibly have been carved in Fromond's lifetime. One of the most important of them shows Beaufort's head with a Cardinal'^ hat his arms too are similarly adorned and Beaufort did not become Cardinal until March, 1427, more than six years after Fromond's death. Another work which it would have been reasonable to delay until the building was well-nigh finished was the ornamentation of the tomb which must once have been the chief feature of the Chantry floor, the tomb containing the bodies of John and Matilda Fromond. An obscure