Bells have now a literature of their own. Ellacombe’s “Bells of the Church,” and Fowler’s “Bells and Bell-ringing” are admirable works. The inscriptions, etc., on the church bells of the majority of English counties have already been published, and most of the remainder are now in progress. North’s “Bells of Leicestershire,” and “Bells of Northamptonshire,” are the best books of their class, but the “Bells of Derbyshire,” now in course of publication in the “Reliquary,” and chiefly contributed by St. John Hope, are being yet more thoroughly treated, both in description and illustration.
Church Plate should always be inspected, and the date, character, inscription, or arms on each piece carefully recorded. Chaffers’ “Hall Marks on Plate” gives the fullest description of the different marks, and how the precise date can be thereby ascertained. The fifth edition, published in 1875, is a considerable improvement on its predecessors.
Inventories of Church Goods often need explanation, or remains of various ancient church furniture may make some description necessary. There is no one book that can be thoroughly recommended on this subject; but, perhaps, the most satisfactory in some respects is Walcott’s “Sacred Archæology,” a popular dictionary of ecclesiastical art and institutions. Jules Corblet’s “Manuel Elémentaire d’Archéologie Nationale” may be consulted with advantage; it is a better done work than anything of the size and scope in English, and is well illustrated. For the various details of Church worship and ceremonies, reference should be made to Rock’s “Church of our Fathers,” and to Chambers’ valuable work, “Divine Worship in England in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, contrasted with and adapted to that in the Nineteenth.”
Before beginning the description of the Church, it will be well, in the first place, in order to ensure clearness and accuracy, that some general PLAN OF PROCEDURE should be adopted. We give the following skeleton of a suggested outline, that has been proved to be useful and orderly, but it can, of course, be altered or expanded or re-arranged in any direction.
1. Enumeration of component parts of structure, remarks as to its general or special characteristics.
2 Ground plan, i.e., dimensions of area of chancel, nave, etc., different levels, and number of chancel and altar steps.
3. Description of parts of the permanent structure that are (a) Saxon, (b) Norman, (c) Early English, (d) Transition, (e) Decorated, (f) Perpendicular, (g) Debased, (h) Churchwarden, and (i) Restored. Some definite order should be observed under each head, otherwise it is likely that some details may escape, e.g. doorways, windows, piers, arches, etc., of chancel, nave, aisles, porches, transepts, tower, and chapels.
4. External details—parapets, gurgoyles, niches, stoup, arms, inscriptions, “low side windows.”
5. Internal details—[Stone] altar or altar stone, piscina, almery, hagioscope, Easter or sepulchral recess, niches, brackets, roof-corbels, and sedilia of (a) chancel, (b) south aisle, (c) north aisle, and (d) chapels or transepts; also groined roofs, doorway or steps to roodloft, and stone screens—[Wood] altar table, altar rails, reading desk, lectern, pulpit, pews, benches, poppy-heads, panelling, roofs, doors, galleries, rood or chancel screen, other screens or parcloses, parish or vestment chests, alms boxes—[Iron or other metal]—any old details.
6. Font—(a) position, (b) description, (c) measurements, (d) cover.