Page:VCH London 1.djvu/321

 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY The preservation of the early churchwardens' accounts makes it possible to collect many details of the fittings, possessions, and services of the London churches, but as might be expected they do not reveal much which cannot find a parallel elsewhere." Mediaeval London, like other English cities, was divided into a great number of very small parishes ; hence the parish churches were of small size compared with the vast and roomy buildings often seen in continental towns.*^ It frequently happened that the backs of houses abutting on a churchyard were built partly over it,'*' the projecting structure being supported on pillars and so forming a covered walk or cloister along one or more sides. ^" The 'cloister chambers' were sometimes occupied by chantry or other priests serving in the church.^^* Churchyard crosses were common in London,'*' and entries occur of the purchase of trees and shrubs ''" and of payments to gardeners for work done in the church-hawe.'" Sellers of fruit, sweetmeats, &c., were sometimes allowed to place their stalls near the church porch ; the money which they paid for this privilege was added to the church stock. ^''^ Most of the London churches consisted merely of a chancel continuous with the nave flanked by one or two aisles, and having their eastern parts screened off with oak parcloses from both chancel and nave, to form chapels.*'^ The number of chapels seems to have varied considerably in different churches, some having only one and others five or six ; one was almost always dedicated in honour of the Blessed Virgin. °" Above the high altar hung the box or vessel, suspended by cord or wire,"^^ containing the pyx with the reserved Sacrament ; the pyx was usually of silver.^ There was sometimes a carved or painted ' table ' or reredos above the altar,'" and along the back of the altar ran a ledge or shelf, sometimes called a ' halpas ' or desk.* The altar-cloths and frontals in the London churches were as a rule of consider- able value and richness ; for example, two of the eight frontals in St. Martin's Ludgate were of cloth of gold.''' The churches were rich in plate and other goods,'"" but the only peculiarities were the number of alms basins,'"' and the use of a basin hanging from the roof for a Paschal candle ; which last may perhaps indicate a special London fashion.'"' Every church had one or '^ Par. Rec. gen. »« Birch, Lend. Ch. 3 ; Arch. Journ. xxxvii, 7,66. '^^ Gent. Mag. Lib. 'Topog.' xvi, 18. >«' Ibid. "^ St. Martin Orgar Vest. Min. 1 574 ; Lond. Epis. Reg. Bonner, fol. 193 ; Stow, Surv. (ed. Munday), 47 1. •'' Arch, xiii, 199 ; Brooke and Hallen, Reg. of St. Mary Woolnoth, pp. 408-9 ; St. Botolph Aldersgate Accts. 1470; St. Marg.iret Westm. Accts. 1484; St. Margaret Southwark Accts. 1535 ; St. Andrew Holborn Rec. Bk. 1538 ; Stow, op. cit. 74. 2™ Par. Rec. gen. "' Ibid. "' St. Margaret Southwark Accts. 1497, 1520 ; St. Andrew Hubbard Accts. 1457, &c. ™ Birch, op. cit. 2-3. 29^ Par. Rec. gen. "' See Chwdns.' Accts. St. Margaret Southwark, 1525 ; St. Marg. Westm. 1546-8 ; St. Martin in the Fields, 1548-9 ; St. Mary Woolnoth, 1547-8 ; St. Stephen Walbrook, 1548-Q. ^ Par. Rec. gen. "' St. Margaret Southwark Accts. 1 449. "» ' A forme uppon the high altar under the juellis ' ; Vestry Min. of St. Christopher le Stocks (ed. E. Fresh- field), 6-]a. Now called the super-altar ; but the old super-altar was a portable consecrated altar-slab, not usually found in a parish church (J. T. Micklethwaite, ' Par. Churches in 1548,' Arch. Journ. xxxv, 385), though St. Christopher le Stocks had three {Vestry Min. (,%b). For mention of 'halpas' see St. Margaret Southwark Accts. 1453. ' Halpas' (Fr. 'haut pas ') also meant the altar platform or a gallery. '™ Inventory, n.d. in Vest. Min. Bk. See St. Margaret New Fish Street Rec. Bk. 1472 ; St. Margaret Southwark Invent. 1485, &c. ^"^ Some London churches were very rich in chalices. St. Martin Orgar had nine (Accts. 1469), and St. Margaret New Fish Street seven (Rec. Bk. 1472). '"' Micklethwaite, Ornaments of the Rubric (Alcuin Club), 39. "» Ibid. 54. 239