Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/310

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. XL APRIL is, 1903.

lychnoscopes * And what you say on this subject may be repeated without questioning in books of reference. When men who are believed to be experts are agreed, such books can only rehearse their opinions.

The stone slab in front of the aperture at Piddinghoe is not consistent with the alleged purpose of such apertures, nor is the "light open panelling" which, according to Parker, sometimes runs across them. At Norton, in Derbyshire, one of these apertures on the south side of the chancel arch is divided from top to bottom by a perpen- dicular stone mullion. Is the " open panel- ling," or lattice - work, which sometimes protects these apertures, consistent with the alleged object of obtaining a view of the Host? In Parker's 'Glossary' a plan is given by the side of the description from which I have quoted. It shows the exact position of three "squints ' inHaseley Church, Oxfordshire. One of these is an oblique passage on the north side of the chancel arch, extending between the north aisle and the chancel. The other two are on the south side of the chancel arch. Of the two " squints " on the south side, one is an oblique passage, extending between the south aisle and the chancel. The other passage, which leads from the nave across a spiral staircase into the chancel, is so deflected that it would be im- possible to see through it at all. It would only be possible to hear or speak through it.

An aperture near the chancel arch at Brad- field Church, about five miles from Sheffield, opens neither into the aisle nor the nave. The opening is between the south wall of the chancel and a tiny room, built a little below the ground, at the angle formed by the junc- tion of the south chancel wall with the east wall of the south aisle. It would have been impossible for people in the nave or aisle to see the elevation of the Host through this aperture. Only a man standing in the tiny room could see through it.

What I have called the tiny room at Brad field corresponds to certain passages from the transept to the chancel in Somersetshire and other counties. Mr. Bligh, in his 'Cornisl: Churches, 't tells us that at St. Cury, "at the junction of the chancel and transept, a remarkable hagioscope is formed by a large chamfer

believe may be seen in a paper on * Hermits anc Hermit Cells,' by the Rev. J. Hudson Barker, where the writer says :" Hagioscopes in the north or south side of the chancel from little chambers be hind in so many churches testify to the frequency of these immured anchorites" (in Andrews's 'The Church Treasury,' p. 83). f t Second edition, Oxford, 1885, p. 47.
 * A good specimen of what we are expected to

the angle, supported by a detached shaft and arches to small responds of similar character. Externally the wall has been thickened out into ,wo rounded projections, on the inner side of the smaller of which is a window which may have >een used as a 'low side window'; within, it is 4 ft. 7 in. above the floor, and its dimensions are ft. 4 in. high by 9 in. wide. A similar arrangement s found in other churches of the district, as at ^andewednack and St. Mawgan." Engravings of the "hagioscopes" at Lande- wednack and St. Mawgan, as well as of that at St. Cury, are given by Mr. Bligh, and what is remarkable in them is that they have all "low side windows." It appears from Mr. Bligh's account that in "the peculiar hagio- scopic arrangement " at Landewednack the " low side window " is of two lights, and "just beneath it, from the foundation of the wall, into which it is built, projects a rude block of stone, which might have been convenient for persons to stand on if these windows really had an outward use. At St. Cury are no traces of the existence of such a block. The dimensions of the window are 2ft. 10 in. by 1ft. Sin. ; the sill 5ft. from the ground ; from the sill to the stone beneath it, 4 ft. 3i in. ; breadth of the wall, 4 ft. The internal arrangement is nearly the same as at St. Cury."*

A year or two ago I examined one of these so-called "low side windows" at Market Deeping, in Lincolnshire, near the junction of the south chancel wall with the nave of the church. It is not glazed, but it is closed on the inside by a wooden shutter, and it has a lattice of iron bars. The aperture is 3 ft. 11 in. above the ground outside. Mea- sured on the outside, the height of the aper- ture is 1 ft. 3 in., and the width 1 ft. It is splayed inwardly, the inside height being 2 ft. 7 in., and the width 1 ft. 7 in.

The block of stone at St. Cury may have been used to stand on, and to speak through the aperture. Such an aperture, however, would have been of no use in a " hagioscopic arrangement." The fact that " hagioscopes" are found, in the great majority of cases, on i he south side only is inconsistent with the pretended object of affording a view of the Host. It is not likely that the Host would be exhibited only to people sitting in the south aisle, and not to those in the north aisle. S- O. ADDY.

(To be continued.)

THE BACON SHAKESPEARE QUESTION.

(See 9 th S. ix. 141, 202, 301, 362, 423 ; x. 43, 124,

201, 264, 362, 463; xi. 122.)

'PuoMUS,' No. 60, is a verse from Horace, Epistle II., i. 14 :

Extinctus amabitur idem,


 * Ibid* p. 83.