WIMBORNE MINSTER
By the Rev. Thomas Perkins, M.A.
IMBORNE Minster, as it is called to distinguish it from the village of Wimborne St. Giles and Monkton-up-Wimborne, is at the present day a bright, clean, prosperous-looking little market town, showing few remains of olden times save in its church. There is no doubt that its name is connected with the little river or “bourne” on which it stands, for the two villages mentioned above, bearing names of which Wimborne forms a part, stand on the same stream, which, like some other Dorset rivers—the Var or Frome, the Piddle or Trent—bears two names, the Wim or the Allen.
And yet it is an ancient place. Here, early in the eighth century, Cudburh, or Cuthberga, sister of Ine, the famous King of the West Saxons, whose laws were the foundation of the liberties of his subjects, and show a spirit of tolerance hitherto unknown towards the conquered Celts, founded a nunnery. Here, in 851, the then Earl of Devon is said to have defeated the Danes; here Æthelred, the brother and immediate predecessor of Ælfred on the West Saxon throne, having died of a wound received in battle with the Danes, we know not where, was buried in 871. Hither came the Danes again, plundering the town and destroying the convent. Hither, too, after the death of Ælfred, in 901, came Æthelwold, the Ætheling (son of Ælfred’s brother, Æthelred, who had been passed over as too young to rule when his father died) rebelling against the new King, Ælfred’s son, Eadward the Unconquered, and possessed himself of Wimborne. Eadward marched from the south against him, and encamped within the rampart of Badbury Rings, a few miles to the west of Wimborne; hence he sent a message to Æthelwold, bidding him surrender. To this Æthelwold returned stout answer that he would either live or die in Wimborne. But after the messenger had gone back he took counsel with himself, and decided that as the first alternative was impossible, and the second unpleasant, he would see if a third course were not open to him—namely, to live elsewhere. So he fled to Normandy, and thence to Northumberland, which was then under Danish rule, and, throwing in his lot with the enemies of Wessex, he collected a band of freebooters from beyond the sea, and received some assistance from the East Anglian Danes. But all to no purpose, for the “Unconquered” King overthrew him and his Danish allies in many fights, and recovered all the booty they had carried off.
But it is the church that is the centre of interest of Wimborne. Ine, King of the West Saxons, had two sisters, perhaps more, but only two are connected with Wimborne. Cuthberga was betrothed to the Northumbrian King, Æcgfred, or Osric, as he is often called, but when she met him she found his rough northern manners and his intemperate habits little in harmony with her more refined disposition and mode of life. Therefore, she persuaded him to allow her to devote herself to a religious life, and retired to the nunnery at Barking; and afterwards, at what exact date we do not know, but probably not later than 705, she founded a nunnery at Wimborne, her sister being associated with her in the work. Both of these royal ladies were buried within the precincts, and in due time canonised as St. Cuthberga and St. Cwenberga; the former was commemorated as a virgin on August 31st. A special service appointed for the day may still be read in a Missal kept in the Cathedral Library at Salisbury.
Wimborne Minster.
The convent of Wimborne can boast of another illustrious lady among those who took the veil within its walls—St. Walburga, or Walpurgis. Somewhere about the end of the seventh or beginning of the eighth century, she was born in Sussex, and was educated at the newly-founded nunnery at Wimborne, and became in due course a nun; here she stayed for yet another twenty-seven years. Then, by the desire of her uncle, St. Boniface, and her brother Wilibald, she set out with thirty other nuns to found religious houses in Germany. She first settled at Bischofsheim, in the diocese of Maintz, and in 754 became Abbess of the Benedictine house at Heidenheim, which was situated within the diocese of Eichstädt, in Bavaria, of which her brother, Wilibald, was Bishop. Another brother, Winebald, was head of the Benedictine monastery in the same place; and when he died, in 760, Walburga received the charge of this house in addition to her own, and continued to rule both until her death in 779. She was buried in a hollow rock at Eichstädt, from which a bituminous oil, afterwards called Walpurgis’ oil, exuded. This was supposed to possess miraculous powers of healing, so that her grave was much visited by pilgrims, and a church was built over it. She is commemorated at different times in different places, but chiefly on May 1st, a day originally celebrated with heathen ceremonies, emblematical of the birth of Summer. Hence some of the heathen rites still lingered on, just as certain of our Christmas customs are of heathen origin. The readers of Göethe’s Faust cannot help remembering the revels of the witches on the Brocken on Walpurgis’ night.
The nunnery at Wimborne perished in some plundering raid of the Danes some time during the ninth century. Whether Ælfred did anything to restore it we do not know, but a king of the name of Eadward, either Ælfred’s son, the “Unconquered,” or the Confessor, founded a college of secular priests at Wimborne. Again, we know not whether the church of this college occupied the site of the old convent church or not. The names of the deans from 1224 until the Dissolution, in 1547, have come down to us. The only one of these whose name is known in history is the last but one—Cardinal Pole, who held this position from 1517 till 1537, being only seventeen years of age at the time of his appointment. When the deanery was abolished, Wimborne Minster became a Royal Peculiar, under the administration of three priest-vicars. The arrangement was a somewhat unusual one; each of the three was responsible for the services for one week, one of the other two acted as his curate in the Minster, and the other took charge of the chapelry of Holt. The next week they changed places; and so on continually. This curious arrangement continued in force till 1876, when one vicar retired on a pension, another removed to Holt, where a parsonage had been built for him, and the third became sole vicar of the Minster and the parish attached to it.
The history of the church is best read in its stones; written records are scanty. The central part, all in Norman style, the work of the twelfth century, is the oldest; from this the building gradually extended north, south, east, and west, as well as upwards, in the course of the next three centuries; but the builders who enlarged did not wantonly destroy the work of their predecessors. Probably the chief cause of this was lack of funds; there was no shrine of saint, nor tomb of martyr, nor wonder-waking relic to attract pilgrims, whose alms, had they come, would have enriched the church, as many another church was enriched, and had to pay the penalty of over-much wealth in the form of demolition and reconstruction. Wimborne Minster was simply enlarged; the outer walls, of course, had sometimes to be pulled down. Thus in the thirteenth century the Norman east end, which was probably apsidal, had to be demolished to afford space for eastward extension, and the date of this extension is determined by the character of the east window; the windows of the aisles proclaim themselves to be of fourteenth century date; the western tower is a century later. The church is one of the few that possess two towers, set tandem fashion, one at the crossing, the other at the west end. It is not a very satisfactory arrangement from an artistic point of view, and has in the few instances in which it has been introduced been unfortunate. Hereford had two towers thus placed, but the western one fell; Wymondham, in Norfolk, has two still standing, but the east end of the church is a ruin; Wimborne central tower was once surmounted by a spire, but this fell. Exeter and Ottery have two towers, but these are placed in a different manner, their bases forming the north and south ends of the transept.
The central tower at Wimborne is the older. It is supported on four massive Norman piers; the east and west arches beneath it are wider than the other two; to bring the capitals from which they spring all into one horizontal plane and the crowns of the four arches all into another horizontal plane, the builders made the wider arches segments of a circle less than semi-circles, and the narrower ones segments greater than semi-circles, giving them the shape of horse-shoes. Above this lower stage are three others—the triforium stage, with a gallery in the thickness of the wall; above this comes the clerestory, added later; and above it another stage, still later, because here, in place of the simple arches seen on the outside of the lower stages, we find interesting arches forming lancet-headed openings; above this is a heavy, ugly parapet and set of pinnacles, erected in 1608 after the fall of the central spire. The western tower is higher than the central one, contains the bells, and, just outside the easternmost window, on the north side of the belfry stage, there stands the wooden figure of a soldier, who strikes the quarter-hours on two bells, one on each side of him, and is known as the “Quarter Jack.”
Inside this western tower, on the face of the south wall, is a curious clock made by Peter Lightfoot, a monk of Glastonbury, in the early part of the fourteenth century. It tells not only the time of day, but the day of the month and the age of the moon. The earth is represented by a globe in the centre; the sun by a ball on a disc, which travels round it in twenty-four hours, showing the time of day; the moon as a globe on another disc, which revolves once in a lunar month. Half of this globe is painted black, the other half is gilt, and the age of the moon is indicated by the respective proportions of black and gilt shown, for the ball itself rotates on its axis; when the moon is full the gilt half is entirely visible; when new, the black half. The clock is still in working order. A screen separates the lower stage of the tower from the nave, and forms a baptistry, in which stands an octagonal font of Norman character, large enough for baptising an infant by immersion.
From the west end, the church presents a very imposing appearance. The nearer pillars, it is true, are rather mean; they are of fourteenth century date, and very plain. It has been, with some probability, conjectured that they were brought from some other church which had been pulled down just before the time when this church was extended westward, possibly when the western tower was built. The pillars of the original nave are cylindrical and massive, the arches of the main arcading resting upon them are pointed; above is a plain wall; the division between the original and the added work is shown by the different character of the mouldings of the arches, and of the string-course above them, and by the fact that to the east there are the original Norman clerestory windows, while the walls to the west are not broken by any openings whatever.
The floor of the presbytery is raised considerably above that of the choir, and this is itself higher than the floor of the nave, so that the altar stands at a considerable elevation. One peculiarity is noteworthy—there are no altar rails, but their place is taken by three massive oaken benches, covered at all times with the “houseling linen,” fair white cloths—the use of which goes back to very early times. The benches which now stand across the presbytery floor, close to the topmost of the flight of steps leading up to it, are the remains of ten such benches, which were made in Puritan times for communicants to sit on as they received the sacred elements. When the custom of kneeling was revived, these benches were placed on the steps; and on “Sacrament Sundays,” the clerk, after morning prayer, went to the lectern and bade those who were prepared to receive the Holy Communion to draw near, whereupon intending communicants left the nave and knelt at the benches, or in the choir stalls, until the officiating clergy brought them the sacramental bread and wine. In 1852, when sundry changes were being made in the arrangements of the church, all these benches except three were removed—the three which were in use as altar-rails.
The beautiful triplet of windows, over the altar, end the long vista seen from the west. Beneath the presbytery floor is a vaulted crypt. This is not, as many crypts are, dark and gloomy, but well lit by triangular windows, which from the outside are seen to be just above the level of the churchyard. This crypt does not retain its original altar, but its place is marked by a piscina on the southern side; two arches open out into the choir aisles, through which those kneeling in the aisles might look down on the priest officiating at the altar of the crypt.
There are several monuments worthy of notice, but by far the most interesting is the Beaufort altar-tomb on the south side of the presbytery. This was erected, to the memory of her father and mother, by the Lady Margaret. foundress of Christ’s and St. John’s Colleges, at Cambridge, well known for her many benefactions, and from the fact that she was the mother of Henry VII. As the history of this family—the Beauforts—is interesting, and its details little touched on by the writers of English history, it may not be out of place, especially as they were connected with Wimborne, to give an outline of it here. Everyone knows that John of Gaunt was the third son of Edward III. and the father of Henry IV., but many know only in a general way that the House of Tudor traced through him their claim to the English crown. John of Gaunt married Blanche, great-granddaughter of Edmund Crouchback, second son of Henry III., who was created Earl of Lancaster in 1257. Her father, on account of his valour in the French wars of Edward III., had been made a Duke—a new title as far as England was concerned, for the only English Duke that had been previously created was the Duke of Cornwall, better known as the Black Prince. Through Blanche, his wife, John of Gaunt succeeded to the estates of the Duke of Lancaster, among them to the Castle of Beaufort, in Anjou. He was himself in 1362 created Duke of Lancaster. Among Blanche’s maids of honour was one Kate, daughter of Sir Payne Roet, and widow of Sir Owen Swynford. When Blanche died, John married Constance of Castile, but took unto himself Kate Swynford as his mistress; by her he became the father of four children, all born at Beaufort Castle. As they were illegitimate, they took the name of their birthplace as a surname. The eldest of these was John de Beaufort, and the second, Henry, the celebrated Cardinal Beaufort. When Constance died, these four children were legitimatised by a Bull of Urban VI., then by Richard II., then by Act of Parliament. The Duke then married Kate. On January 13th, 1396, John de Beaufort was created Earl of Somerset. He died in 1410, leaving four sons and two daughters; the eldest, Henry, did not long survive his father, and his title and estates passed to his next brother, John. He greatly distinguished himself in the French wars, and was made Duke of Somerset, Earl of Kendale, Lieutenant of the Duchy of Aquitaine and Captain-General of the whole realm of France and Normandy. In 1436 the Duke of Bedford, the Regent, died, and as the King, Henry VI., was still a minor, another regent had to be appointed. The Duke of Lancaster thought he should have obtained this important post, but it was conferred on the Duke of York, and Lancaster therefore retired from active service, and in 1440 married Margaret, widow of Oliver St. John, and daughter of John, Lord Beauchamp, of Bletsoe Manor, Bedfordshire. This John, Duke of Somerset, and Margaret, his wife, are they whose figures lie side by side in alabaster on their altar-tomb at Wimborne. Their right hands are clasped together; angels guard their heads; his feet rest on a dog, hers on an antelope; he is clad in complete armour, the face and right hand alone bare; the left hand holds the right-hand gauntlet, which he has taken off before taking the lady’s hand. On the apex of the arch, above the tomb, hangs the helm which he, during his life, used to wear in tournaments. Their only child was born in 1441—Margaret, of whom mention has been made. Her father died in 1444, aged thirty-nine years, and the Duchy of Somerset became extinct in the Beaufort family. His death took place at Kingston Lacy, an estate close to Wimborne, belonging to the Beaufort family. His widow and daughter went to live on the Bedfordshire property. In about four years time, the widow married her third husband, Lord Welles. Young Margaret, when only nine years of age, was sought by the Duke of Suffolk as a wife for his son, John de la Pole, and by King Henry VI. as wife for his half-brother, Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, son of Catherine, the Queen of Henry V., by her second husband, Sir Owen Tudor. Margaret was a clever girl, well educated, knowing even then Latin and French; but sorely distraught was she to know which of the two suitors to choose: so she consulted an old gentlewoman, who advised her to commit the matter to St. Nicholas. She took the advice, prayed to the saint, and fell asleep, and about four o’clock next morning, whether sleeping or waking she could not tell, saw one standing in her room, habited in a bishop’s robes, who bade her accept Edmund Tudor as a husband. She told her mother, and she was betrothed to the Earl of Richmond, and they were married in 1455, when she was fourteen years of age and he twenty-four. They lived at Pembroke Castle, which belonged to Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke. In 1456 her only son, Henry, afterwards Henry VII., was born, and shortly after this her husband died. He was buried at Caermarthen Abbey, and when the monastery was suppressed, his body was removed to the Cathedral Church at St. David’s. His mother, anxious to keep quite aloof from party strife (for the War of the Roses had already broken out), lived on at Pembroke, educating her son. In 1459 she married her second husband, Sir Humphrey Stafford; widowhood, for one of exalted rank, not being a desirable condition in those times of war and turmoil. It has been seen that her mother was thrice married, and Margaret followed her example, for when Sir Humphrey died in 1481, she, at the end of a year, being then about forty years of age, married Thomas, Lord Stanley. After fifteen years she separated from him with his consent, in order to devote herself to a religious life, and retired to the convent at Woking, in Surrey. It must not be supposed that she had a peaceful or happy life. Her thoughts were centred on her only son, and many were the years of separation from this son that his mother had to endure. The story of his wanderings, his dangers, his detention in Brittany, are too long to be told here—suffice it to say that Richard III. became so odious to the chief nobles that at last it was arranged that Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, Margaret’s son, should be recognised by the Lancastrian party as their leader, and should claim the throne; and that in order to gain the adherence of those members of the Yorkist party who were opposed to Richard, a marriage should take place between Henry and Elizabeth, the daughter of Edward IV. Both the mothers agreed to the union: but the first attempt at invasion by Richmond was a failure, and Richard seemed free from all danger; and with a view to win over his Yorkist opponents, he made up his mind to marry Elizabeth himself, although she was his own brother’s child. This step led to a fresh invasion—this time a successful one—and the death of Richard on Bosworth field virtually placed the crown on Henry’s head (1485). So at last the Lady Margaret’s troubles were at an end, and she saw her son crowned and wedded, and the red and white roses twined together. It remains only to speak of her benefactions. Those at Cambridge are well known; and the writer of this chapter, who once held at Christ’s College one of the scholarships she founded, cherishes the memory of the royal and pious lady with all due gratitude. But it is of her benefactions at Wimborne that mention must now be made. About 1498 she built the beautiful monument to her father and mother in the Minster; founded a chantry, where, for her own soul, and for those of her son, her parents, and ancestors, Mass was to be duly said. She founded and endowed the Grammar School, though, as its endowments were greatly added to by Queen Elizabeth, its name was afterwards changed from the Lady Margaret’s to that of Queen Elizabeth’s Free Grammar School.
The Lady Margaret just outlived her son; both died in the same year, 1509, but she rather later than he.
Of the other monuments space forbids mention of any, save that of Anthony Etricke, if it can be called a monument, for it is really the sarcophagus that contains the body of this eccentric magistrate, who lived at Holt, and was recorder of Poole. He desired, for some reason, to be buried neither above the ground nor under it, neither within the church nor outside of it; and in order to carry out this strange wish, he got permission to cut a niche in the south wall, partly below the level of the surface of the churchyard, and in it fixed a slate sarcophagus. In this he ordered his coffin to be deposited when he died; and he made all the preparations he could beforehand, even to the painting of the date of his death on the side of the slate coffin. He had a presentiment that he should die in 1691, but he lived till 1703, so that the real date of his death had to be placed on the coffin. The other date was not obliterated, but the new one was painted on the other, and the two may be seen there to-day. The arms of his family are painted on the lid, and, as he left twenty shillings per annum to keep coffin and niche in good repair, the sarcophagus is bright and smart as paint, gilding, and varnish can make it.
The Chained Library, Wimborne Minster.
The chained library, as it is called, is placed in a chamber above the vestry, rebuilt when the church was restored. It was formed by the Rev. William Stone, Principal of New Inn Hall, Oxford, afterwards one of the “three vicars” of the church. By his will he left some land to St. Margaret’s Hospital, and his collection of books to the Minster. These were brought from Oxford in 1686, and placed in what was then known as the Treasury. They were chiefly the writings of the Fathers, with certain other theological books, and were intended for the free use of the people of Wimborne. In these days few would care to pore over these dry and heavy tomes, or make use of the library, for it does not contain any novels, standard or ephemeral; but there were days when it was used for study. In 1725 a catalogue was made, and the number of the books was then two hundred; when next catalogued, about one hundred and fifty years later, the number had dropped to one hundred and eighty-five, despite the fact that ten books not mentioned in the former catalogue were on the shelves. There is but one MS., bearing date 1343, “Regimen Animarum,” written on vellum, and containing some illuminated initials. The majority of the books were printed between 1520 and 1710. The most interesting are: a Polyglot Bible (1657), a Breeches’ Bible (1595), and Sir Walter Ralegh’s History of the World (1614). No less than one hundred and four pages of this History have had a hole burnt through them. Tradition says that Matthew Prior, the poet, was reading this book by candle light, and fell asleep; when he awoke he found that some snuff from his candle had fallen on the book and done the mischief. He stuck small pieces of parchment over the hole in every page, and inserted the missing letters or words with pen and ink. But the interesting tradition has been controverted in modern times.
The books were originally chained to the shelves, one end of the chain being fastened to the edge of the binding, the other to a ring which would slide along a rod. Many of the books had got loose in the course of years, and lay dusty and uncared for; but at the restoration, new rods were fastened along the new shelves, and the old chains repaired and put to their former use.
In two oaken chests in this room many deeds relating to the Collegiate Church (the earliest dating from the time of Henry III., the latest from that of Henry VIII.) are preserved. Among them is the deed founding the Chantry and Grammar School, drawn up by the executors of the Lady Margaret’s will; and also the charter granted by Charles I. to the Governors of the church, from which they derive the powers of appointing clergy, choristers, clerk, vergers, etc., which powers they use to-day.
There is one other ancient ecclesiastical foundation in the neighbourhood of Wimborne, about a quarter of a mile from the town on the road to Blandford. It is now an almshouse, where three poor married couples, three poor single men, and the same number of unmarried women, are maintained; but its original purpose was to relieve only such of the poor as were suffering from leprosy. It is generally said to have been founded by John of Gaunt, and so to have been another connection between that family and Wimborne. There is, it may be said, an old kitchen at Canford which is still called “John of Gaunt’s Kitchen”; whether he had anything to do with the building of the kitchen or the endowment of the Lazar-house we do not know, but it is certain that he did not found the latter, for, in the reign of King John, Hugo of Lingiveria gave to it an acre of land, and in 1282 the Bishop of Exeter gave an indulgence to any who would contribute to its support. A deed of the date of Henry VIII. refers to a Bull of Innocent IV., dated 1245, in which this hospital is mentioned. Various gifts of land, vestments, plate, etc., were bestowed on the hospital, to which a small chapel dedicated to St. Margaret and St. Anthony is attached. A chantry was founded here by one John Redcoddes, in order that a priest might daily say masses for his soul’s welfare. The chapel, the architecture of which shows that it was originally built in the thirteenth century, still stands, and is fitted up for service. Hither once a week one of the clergy comes from the Minster to conduct a service, which the almshouse people attend.
Other than the buildings already mentioned, there is little mediæval work to be seen in Wimborne. The old Free Grammar School buildings have given place to modern ones erected in 1851, and the school is now managed by a governing body appointed under a scheme drawn up by the Charity Commissioners. So “the old order changeth, giving place to the new”; but, seen from far or near, the two-towered Minster, with its parti-coloured walls of deep red and drab stone, rises grand and old amid its modern surroundings—a noble memorial of the mediæval builder’s art.