PILGRIMAGE IN COMFORT, CANTERBURY.
MARTINMAS. CHRISTMAS. HOLY TRINITY, HULL.
HUNTSMAN AND DEER, YORK.
The block from the capital of a column in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, tells us little of its history. It is given as an example of a cheerful grace and ease not common in early work.
The hunting of the boar is a frequent subject of the Gothic carver, being generally considered the sport of September, though Sir Edward Coke says the season for the boar was from Christmas to Candlemas. It is uncommon to find the boar’s head shewn treated as in the accompanying block, struck off, and with the lemon in his mouth, ready for the table. These quatrefoils are the only two with a special design upon them, out of twelve on the font of Holy Trinity Church, Hull, the others having rosettes. There is no rule in this, but there are other examples in which small portions of fonts are picked out for significant decoration, and possibly on the side originally intended to be turned towards the door of the church, or the altar.
Hunting scenes frequently occur. A boss in York Minster shews a huntsman “breaking” a deer as it hangs from a tree.
The wild sweetness of one stringed and one wind instrument—not uncommonly met as harp and piccolo near London “saloon bars”—was a usual duet of the middle ages. In Stoeffler’s Calendarum Romanorum Magnum (of 1518) in a series of woodcuts illustrating the months, and which are otherwise reasonable, he gives one of these duets performed in a field as a proper occupation of the month of April with the following highly appropriate distich—