Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/67

 9 th S. III. JAN.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

61

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY S8, 1899.

CONTENTS. -No. 57.

VOTES : Heptonstall, 61 Jew's Walk, Sydenham, 62 Shakspeariana, 63 Marbles, 65 Letters from Ministers to the Sovereign" To Rile "The Willow Leaves on the Sun, 66 Omdurman Sir C. Sedley : Voltaire, 67.

QUERIES :-Oil Painting Henry Alken Edward Marsh- Francis Gifford Sewardstone Portraits at Oxford, 67 Queen Mary Tudor Agam Colours Lewis Carroll Dead Fold " Unspeakable Turk" Dr. John King Cure by Hand of a Corpse Author of Play Wanted The Village of Loggerheads Treacle Bible Younie, 68 " T'esquinte pas "Clare Street Mrs. Younger=John Finch Hatton Author Wanted Goldsmith's Earth and Animated Nature' The Stuart Watch Alaric Benedict Arnold- Lady Maynard " Sween " Dallas, 69.

REPLIES: St. Peter's, Wolverhampton, Charter, 70 "Helpmate" Minutes and Seconds "Vestigia nulla retrorsum," 71 "Ploughing the sands" Ward Miss Linwood's Galleries Gulls ' The Whole Duty of Man' Black Blotting Paper Acorus calamus, 72 "Piggin" English Monkish Chronology The George worn by Charles I. Dr. Dee, 73 Cooke Glyndyfrdwy The Real JEaesiB, 74 Relic of Napoleon Burns's Prophecy Cam e- lian Ring Rounds or Rungs, 75" Felicity "A Descend- ant of Swift, 76 Tdte-a-Tete Portraits " Rummer" A Child's Caul, 77 Wollaston Arms Hereditary Odour Furly, 78.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Verney's ' Memoirs of the Verney Family ' Le Dix-huitieme SiScle 'Henderson's ' Scottish Vernacular Literature.'

Notices to Correspondents.

HEPTONSTALL.

As the traveller wends along the beautiful valley of the Calder, he descries, perched like a human eyrie on the summit of a high, steeply precipitous hill, the village of Hepton- stall, the tower of the ancient church modestly overtopping the clustering cottages. The name Heptonstall, which is the modern ren- dering of the Saxon Heaqh-ton-stall, that is, the High-town-station, admirably designates this interesting quaint spot. As a ton or town, though to-day merely a small village, it is not improbable that Heptonstall is one of the oldest in Yorkshire. It has an antique history. Here was a Roman road, leading from Cambodunum to Colonia (Colne). Here early Saxon settlers, taking ad vantage of this highway made ready to their hands, estab- lished a stall or station, recognizing, too, the natural strong and secure position on the mountain height. The nomenclature of the district for miles around is unmistakably Saxon, traces of the older Celt being exceed- ingly rare.

The glory of Heptonstall is the old church, or rather, it is sad to have to write, the ruins of the church. This church was dedicated t St. Thomas a Becket, one of the many illus-

trious occupants of the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury a name invested with tragic renown. The church was probably erected about the middle of the thirteenth century. As lords of the manor, the Earls Warrenne, there is scarcely a doubt, built and endowed this edifice. The neighbouring church of Ealand is a few years older, and Halifax, of course, much older still.

The architecture of this church is very far from common. In its palmiest days this ecclesiastical edifice was one of unique beauty. It consisted of a tower, two naves, and two chancels, which latter were entered by high arches, together with north and south aisles. The tower was plain and massive, surmounted with an embattled parapet, the lower part forming the vestry. The north and south naves consisted of four bays each. Four crosses surmounted the four gables. Dormer win- dows added to the quaintness of the structure. A very interesting and ancient feature Avas the sancte bellcot, the bell of which was rung when the celebrant elevated the sacred ele- ments of the Holy Eucharist. On the south side of the altar there was a piscina, but there is no trace of any aumbrie, tnough some anti- quaries maintain there are indications of one still remaining. The altar was approached by steps, being thus raised above the level of the floor. There appears to have been an organ in this church in the sixteenth century. In the eighteenth century additions in the way of lofts were made, which did not con- tribute to the beauty of the edifice. In the reign of Henry VIII. we find there was a chantry of the Blessed Virgin Mary, this chantry possessing lands in the adjacent township of Stansfield. A fine porch still remains. The church has unquestionably been enlarged and altered at different periods, though a portion of the original structure is still standing.

In the latter part of the fifteenth century the church was polluted by a violent effusion of blood "violentasanguiniseffusionenotoria polluta." < The Archbisliop of York in 1482 issued a licence for twenty-four days, grant- ing permission to celebrate Mass beyond the precincts of the church in lawfully appointed places until such times as the church should be reconciled " ad reconciliandam." History- has handed down no particulars, and tradi- tion is entirely silent. Had this sanguinary affair taken place a few years earlier, we might have been led to connect it with the Wars of the Roses, and conjectured a fierce encounter between the partisans of the rival houses of York and Lancaster. It was pro- bably a local clannish feud.