“Barnaby bright, Barnaby light,
The longest day and the shortest night.”
Every form of chronicled lore, be it register, fabric roll, charter, or brief, teems with some peculiar custom which is a moving history, an heirloom from the old world, helping to connect the past and the present.
Architectural items enter largely into the varied forms of church documents; the Indulgence often gave full particulars as to the repairs of a building, a fact most valuable for supplying the date at which any portion was built or renewed. Cathedral archives of whatever class, are sure to abound in allusions to the fabric or its annals, sometimes going so far as to sketch some portion in the marginal pages, of which an example is found in a drawing of old St. Paul’s in the 14th century, occurring in a MS. called the “Flores historiarum.” The statutes of our minsters are rich in ecclesiastical lore, the mediæval fraternities or guilds are often mentioned in them, and in the statutes of St. Paul’s a most curious custom is mentioned of waits parading the streets of London, to give notice of the feast of the Transfiguration, and carrying with them a picture or banners of that event.
The antiquarian enthusiast on these subjects cannot do better than consult the work on “English Guilds” published by the Early English Text Society, and that of the “Statutes of St. Paul’s,” by Dr. Sparrow Simpson, 1873.
Fabric rolls and inventories are an endless source of detailed information, in both of these, most minute descriptions are given; the painting and drawing of images, the materials, even to the pencils and brushes, being mentioned. Perhaps the most elaborate is that of the expense rolls for St. Stephen’s chapel, in the old palace of Westminster, a bill of charges that helps to identify the kind of work done at that time, and the general artistic treatment in the reign of Edward III.
The following entries may be given as a typical illustration:—
| William de Padryngton, mason, for making twenty angels to stand in the tabernacles, by task work at 6/8 per each image | £6 | 13s. | 4d. | |
| For seven hundred leaves of gold, bought for the painting of the tabernacles in the Chapel | £1 | 8s. | 0d. |
The following item shows that there were artists who designed the work afterwards carried out by inferior craftsmen.
| Hugh de St. Alban’s and John de Cotton, painters, working on the drawings of several images. | £0 | 9s. | 0d. |
An examination of this expense roll, of which this is not a tithe of the entries, printed in Smith’s history of Westminister, will well repay attention.