Page:Surrey Archaeological Collections Volume 7.djvu/427

 NOTES ON THE CHALDON PAINTING.

BY J. G. WALLER.

FEW additional notes on the Chaldon Painting may now be desirable, as some further information has been obtained since the publication of the account in Vol. V. of the Society's Collections; especially as this curious work is as yet without a parallel, even its analogies must be sought for far and wide, and are found in fragmentary particles rather than as a whole. It is certainly the most valuable relic of ecclesiastical art yet found in England, and, as far as we know, the subject has not been met with on the Continent.

It is interesting to feel that we can assign to it a date within a few years of its execution. The original story of The Drunken Pilgrim is first given by Caesarius, the Monk of Heisterbach, and this, which is really but a dream, gives reference to both persons and time, and the latter will place the painting after 1198, that being about the period alluded to. The style of execution will not allow us to fix it beyond the earlier part of the 13th century. The story is now given entire. It is entitled "The Punishment of the Abbot of Corbey."

At the time of the schism between Otto and Philip, kings of the Romans, a certain pilgrim coming from parts beyond sea, selling his cloak for wine, which in those parts is very strong, drank so much that, being drunk, he went out of his mind, and was thought to be dead. At the same hour his spirit was led to the place of punishment, where he saw the Prince of Darkness himself, sitting upon a well covered with a fiery lid. In the meantime, amongst other souls, is led forth the Abbot of Corbey, whom he much saluted as he pre-