Near the south-west tower is a fine red-brick house which doubtless remembers the Georges, or even Queen Anne. It has all the air of a prebendal residence, but if it was ever connected with the church, that connection has long ceased.
Another red-brick house of some age, adjoining the picturesque ascent from High St. Agnesgate to the south transept, was the Canons’ Residence up to 1859, when was bought the present Residence near the north-east corner of the graveyard.
High St. Agnesgate contains several interesting buildings, foremost among which is St. Anne’s Hospital,[122] formerly called ‘The Maidens’ Due’ (Maison de Dieu), with its interesting ruined chapel. This is the only one of the three hospitals which was never affiliated to the Collegiate Church. The date of its origin has been placed shortly before 1438, in which year a chantry was founded in its chapel. The hospital foundation was for four poor men and four poor women, and there were also two beds for ‘casuals’; and the little community was under the charge of a priest. There was apparently no endowment. The domestic portion of the building was pulled down in 1869. Though it had been divided into cottages some time before that date, the original arrangements have been recovered from an old document and from certain indications that had survived in the fabric itself. Joined to the west end of the chapel was a sort of nave, divided down the middle by a partition, on one side of which were the beds for the men, on the other those for the women, while at the west end were two rooms for the priest. This ‘nave’ was probably open to the chapel, as the large size of the western arch of the latter seems to indicate, and possibly the infirmer inmates could attend the service without leaving their beds.[123]
To pass to the chapel itself—a window in the north wall has been blocked with masonry, upon which is a shield of arms, thought to be those of Sir Solomon Swale of South Stainley, and surmounted by a Maltese cross with the letters S.S. and the date 1654 upon it. The west gable has once been crowned by a bell-cote, and attached to the south-west corner of the chapel are the remains of an arched doorway. The western arch of the building, curiously enough, is not in the middle of the wall. It is recessed and chamfered, and rests upon two semi-cylindrical responds, whose rather curious capitals do not follow the form of the shaft, but are triple and rectangular. The chapel internally is 20 feet 10 inches long and 11 feet 6 inches wide, and is not at right angles to its western wall, but inclines considerably toward the south. In the middle of the entrance is an octagonal basin, supported on a pedestal and having a shield on each of its sides. This is thought to have been a stoup for holy water. It is not, perhaps, in its original position, and the pedestal does not seem to belong to it. Opposite to the blocked window already mentioned, which has an aumbry east of it, there is a late square-headed window of two lights, whose arches do not reach quite up to the lintel, but are connected with it by short perpendiculars. East of this is a piscina with projecting semi-octagonal basin, trefoil head, and ogee hood, and with a small square window above and to the left of it. The stone slab on two stone supports against the east wall is probably the original altar, and tradition says that the ransom of a Scottish prince was paid down upon it. On either side of the altar is a stone bracket, that on the north side bearing a shield of arms.[124] The east window, which is blocked, is divided into two lights, and the head is almost filled by a large quatrefoil, of which the uppermost and lowermost foils are ogees. This window, and the piers and capitals of the western arch, give the impression that the chapel is of a date earlier than that usually assigned for the foundation of the hospital. The modern cottages are inhabited by eight women.
THE CHAPEL OF ST. ANNE’S HOSPITAL.
(From a pen-drawing by the author.)
Between St. Anne’s Hospital and Bondgate Green Bridge stands the Thorp Prebendal House, now divided into several dwellings. Whether its existing fabric is as old as the Reformation or not, this was the site upon which dwelt the Canons of the mediæval prebend of Thorp. In 1391 the hall of the then existing house was used for casting several bells for the Minster, and here, in later days, as Canon of Thorp, lived Marmaduke Bradley. The house is said to have been sold by Edward VI. to the Earl of Cumberland, and to have subsequently sheltered Mary Queen of Scots, James I, and Charles I. It is best seen from the adjoining bridge, whence its plastered walls, irregular gables, and stone roof form a picturesque foreground to the Cathedral. Of the dwellings into which it is now divided, the third from the bridge contains the grand staircase, which has twisted skeleton balusters.
East of St. Anne’s Hospital, there are two more old houses, one of which, known as St. Agnes’ Lodge,[125] is of considerable interest. The body of it, long and low, with a high-pitched roof and with a massive chimney-stack buttressing one end, is said to be of the time of Henry VII., but derives much of its ‘character’ from the comparatively modern windows, which resemble the portholes of a ship. A wing added in the seventeenth century, with quaint curvilinear gable, projects into the garden behind. Within the house is a square hall, having above the fireplace some carving and a painted panel of the burning of London in 1666. There is also a good oak staircase, and in the upper storey are several quaint features, including a cupboard that may have served for a hiding-place, and two ‘powdering-closets’ in which ladies’ hair, or men’s wigs, could be powdered in the eighteenth century. But the part of the house most interesting architecturally is the attics, where the framing of the king-post roof is extremely massive, while the floor is of concrete.[126] One of the roof-beams in the wing bears the date 1693. This house disputes with the Thorp Prebendal House the honour of having sheltered Mary Queen of Scots on her way from Bolton Castle to Tutbury, and it is said that it was during her sojourn at Ripon that she addressed an appeal to Queen Elizabeth and received an offer of marriage from the Duke of Norfolk. St. Agnes’ Lodge claims also to have been a temporary home of Turner, at the time when he was illustrating Whitaker’s History of Craven and History of Richmondshire. Whether this house or its immediately western neighbour were ever prebendal residences it is now difficult to say.