CHURCH CHEST, S. MICHAEL’S, COVENTRY.
[p 173]
Turning now to those chests, whose makers, while not forgetting the needful solidity and strength, aimed also at greater decoration, the handsome hutch at S. Michael’s, Coventry, claims our notice. The front of this is carved with a double row of panels having traceried heads, the upper row being half the width of the lower one. In the centre are two crowned figures, popularly (and not improbably) described as Leofric and his wife, the Lady Godiva. At each end of the front is a long panel decorated with lozenges enclosing Tudor roses, foliage, and conventional animals; while two dragons adorn the bottom, which is cut away so as to leave a triangular space beneath the chest. At S. John’s, Glastonbury, is another fine example, measuring six feet two inches in length, and at present lidless. Within six vesica-shaped panels are placed quatrefoil ornaments, each divided by a horizontal bar. Above these are five shields, three charged with S. George’s Cross, and the others, one with three lozenges in fess, and the other with three roundles, two and one, and a label. The ends, or legs, are elaborately carved with dog-tooth figures in squares and circles. Saltwood, Kent, has an ornately carved chest, [p 174] divided (like that of Stonham Aspel) into two parts, the lid being correspondingly formed, and opening in sections. One half is secured by three locks, and the other by one. The front is carved with five geometrical “windows” of four lights each; and the ends of the front have three carved square panels, divided by bands of dancette ornament. The base has a long narrow panel, with a simple wavy design. There is some bold carving on a chest at S. George’s, South Acre, in Norfolk; a row of cusped arches fills rather more than half the height of the front, the rest being taken up with four panels containing roses and stars, similar designs on a smaller scale being repeated at the ends. The front is cut away at the bottom in a series of curves.
CHURCH CHEST S. JOHN’S GLASTONBURY
At Alnwick is a massive coffer, over seven feet long, bearing on its front a number of figures of dragons, and heads of birds and beasts, amid foliage; above which are two hunting scenes, in which appear men with horns, dogs, and deer, amid trees. These two scenes are separated by the lock, and are precisely alike, save that the quarry in one is a stag, and a hind in the other. Empingham, near Stamford, has a fine chest of cedar wood, adorned with incised figures. At [p 177] S. Mary’s, Mortlake, is one of walnut, inlaid with boxwood and ebony, and ornamented with designs in metal work; the under side of the lid has some delicate iron-wrought tracery, which was originally set off with red velvet. The Huttoft chest is enriched with traceried arches, which were apparently at one time picked out in colour; that of Stoke D’Abernon is raised on four substantial legs, and is decorated with three circles on the front filled with a kind of tracery; there are other interesting specimens at Winchester and at Ewerby. In the old castle at Newcastle-on-Tyne is preserved an old church coffer, which was probably removed there for safety during the troublous days of the Civil War. At Harty Chapel, Kent, we find the figures of two knights in full armour, tilting at each other, carved on the front of a chest; the legend of S. George and the dragon is illustrated in a similar way at Southwold Church, Suffolk, and yet more fully on a chest in the treasury of York Minster.
Probably, however, the handsomest example of a carved church chest now preserved in England is at Brancepeth, in the county of Durham. This beautiful piece of work, which [p 178] rests in the south chapel of the church, has its front completely covered with elaborate carving. At either end are three oblong panels, one above another, on each of which is a conventional bird or beast; at the base is a series of diamonds filled, as are the intervals between them, with tracery; and above this is an arcade of six pointed arches, each enclosing three lights surmounted by a circle, the six being divided by tall lancets, the crockets of the arches and a wealth of foliage filling up the intervening spaces. This fine chest dates from the fourteenth century.
The Rev. Francis E. Powell, M.A., in his pleasantly-written work entitled “The Story of a Cheshire Parish,” gives particulars of the parish chest of Over. “The chest,” says Mr. Powell, was “the gift of Bishop Samuel Peploe to Joseph Maddock, Clerk, April 30th, 1750.” It probably was an old chest even then. The donor was Bishop of Chester from 1726 to 1752. He was a Whig in politics, and a latitudinarian in religion, as so many bishops of that time were. That he was a man of determined courage may be seen by his loyalty to the House of Hanover, even under adverse [p 179] circumstances. One day, in the year 1715, he was reading Morning Prayer at the parish church at Preston. The town was occupied by Jacobite troops, some of whom burst into the church during the service. Approaching the prayer-desk, with drawn sword, a trooper demanded that Peploe should substitute James for George in the prayer for the King’s Majesty. Peploe merely paused to say, “Soldier, I am doing my duty; do you do yours;” and went on with the prayers, whereupon the soldiers at once proceeded to eject him from the church. The illustration of the chest is kindly lent to us by the Rev. Francis E. Powell, vicar of Over.