Bell's Cathedrals: The Priory Church of St. Bartholomew-the-Great, Smithfield / A Short History of the Foundation and a Description of the / Fabric and also of the Church of St. Bartholomew-the-Less

by George Worley

Both transepts had been injured by fire, and were originally much deeper than they are at present, but to have rebuilt them exactly on the old lines would have involved the suppression of a right of way and the purchase of neighbouring properties, besides adding to the cost of heating and maintenance, expenses which the funds would not allow. Here, as elsewhere, the old work, as far as it remained, has been left undisturbed, and simply incorporated into the new, the architect contenting himself with removing the modern walls which had been set up at the extremities to keep out the weather, providing abutments to strengthen the central arches, and supplying what was wanted to complete the first design within the more limited area. During the reconstruction of this transept the fine arcaded Stone Screen was revealed which separates it from the space within the tower. The screen was buried some four feet in earth, and the upper part entirely concealed by the smithy. The style shows it to be of the fifteenth century, when there was probably a similar screen on the opposite side of the choir, the two backing the stalls, which are known to have been carried under the tower. The existing screen is divided into two wide arches, slightly depressed, with a moulding in four orders. It has been refaced on the choir side, and a partition of ironwork, ornamented with coloured coats of arms, inserted in the open spaces, to serve as a barrier without obstructing the view in either direction.

Under one of the arches there is a stone coffin, with a much decayed cover of Purbeck marble, which is supposed to have contained the body of a Prior. It was opened for examination during the rebuilding, when a skeleton was found within it, with sandals still on the feet, but as the skull was gone it was evident that the coffin had previously been opened. In the arch by its side there was another coffin of the same character, which has unfortunately been shifted to the north ambulatory. It is without a cover, and the skeleton is no longer there; but the leaden envelope remains, more or less in the state in which it was folded round the corpse. The arched recess on the east, by the side of the opening to the ambulatory, is supposed to have been the entrance to the Walden Chantry; but it has been built up with a return-wall.

The triforium is continuous through all three walls of the transept, each bay consisting of a double pointed arch, except that above the ambulatory, where the surviving Norman fragment shows three round-headed openings, included in a semicircular arch with billet moulding. The clerestory in the north wall, where the work is entirely new, is ornamented with a traceried arcading on an interior plane, which has a very beautiful effect.

The South Transept, opened after restoration on 14th March, 1891, had been turned to account as a burial-ground, supplementary to that at the west end. The side walls were allowed to stand for the enclosure, but the south wall was pulled down, and another erected within the space, to separate the "Green Churchyard," as it was called, from the church. In this case, therefore, the restoration meant little more than the removal of the intercepting wall to open out the transept, and building a new one at the extremity, with a partial reconstruction of those which were decayed to connect them with it. In the renovation of both transepts blue Bath stone has been used internally, and Portland stone with flints for the exterior. The conservative nature of the work is here seen in the side walls, each of which retains a bay of the old Norman triforium, with its round-headed divisions, to which a new bay has been added, with a slightly pointed arcade, as a connection, without any violent contrast, between the older parts of the transept and the new south wall. This presents an agreeable variety to that facing it in the opposite transept. In the upper stage, instead of a triforium and clerestory, there are three tall windows of two lights each, the central being carried above the others, and distinguished by a more ornate tracery, here taking a cruciform pattern above the trefoil-headed divisions, instead of a foliated circle as in the side windows. The arcading in which they are all placed is severely simple in character, the slightly pointed headings resting on plain shafts, with moulded bases and capitals—the whole composition a pleasing relief to the heavier architecture on each side without being discordant. The same may be said of the lower stage, also arcaded in three divisions, corresponding with those above, but rather more massive in character. The central arch forms a porch, giving access to the church on that side, with a recess to the east and west of it, each lighted by a dwarfed window. The eastern of these recesses answers the purpose of a baptistery. The Font dates from the early fifteenth century, and is octagonal in shape, with a tall cover, crocketed at the angles, suspended on a swivel above it. The facets of the octagon are perfectly plain, but there is an oblong incision in one of them which looks very much like the matrix of a brass, or the seat of a sculptured panel, which has been removed. There is a traditional interest attaching to the font as that in which William Hogarth, the famous painter and satirist, was baptized. He was born in Bartholomew Close on 10th November, 1697, and his baptism is entered in the parish register on the 28th of the same month.[2] It is recorded that the font had a narrow escape in the eighteenth century, when the Vestry ordered it to be removed for a new one, but fortunately the order was never carried out.

In a recess on the eastern side of the transept there is a monument to Elizabeth Freshwater, whose effigy, in the costume and ruff collar of her time, is shown kneeling at a small priedieu, with English and Latin inscriptions beneath:

Here lyeth interred the body of Elizabeth Freshwater, late wife of Thomas Freshwater, of Henbridge, in the County of Essex, Esquire; eldest daughter of John Orme of this parish, Gentleman, and Mary his wife. She died the 16th day of May Anno Domini 1617, being of the age of 26 years.

	Ut sic trina uno vulnere praeda cadat? Unam saeva feris; sed et uno hoc occidit ictu Uxor dulcis, amans filia, chara soror.
(=	O hasty death, how hast them so contrived Thy darts with venomous poison to direct That, by one cruel stroke, not one but three are killed, Sweet wife, a loving daughter, sister dear!)