So that the present position of several of our cathedral organs (which is fully justified by convenience and æsthetic satisfaction as being thoroughly Gothic) is only a survival of a very tolerably ancient practice. Playing the organ (“cuilibet cantancium organum, trahenti organa”) is mentioned in the Black Book, already quoted from, in 1322. Canon Christopher Wordsworth[103] considers that the terms organizacio, organizare, apply apparently to vocal music at the lectern in choir at the end of evensong and lauds. Canon Maddison mentions that one of the vicars received a fee as late as 1536 for playing the organ at the “Jesus Mass.” On the 10th September 1442, an order for 5 marcs from the fabrick chest was made for new organs in the great choir, to be constructed by one Arnold, “organer,” of Norwich, in the best manner possible. On 14th October (of the same year, I think), Robert Patryngton is commissioned to find with all speed “a scientific man” who has skill to make the new organs in Lincoln choir. The organ, which was remodelled and enlarged in 1897-8, was the work of Allen, the case being designed by the late E. J. Willson in the year 1826.
A word or two must suffice to describe the side screens of the choir, which separate it from the north and south choir aisles. Very probably, in addition to other uses, these screen-walls were built to connect together the piers of the choir arcades, at least in the three western bays, and so help to take off some of the thrust produced by the central tower, and were constructed after its fall. The north screen-wall has an arcade or triple shafts, ornamented with dog-tooth, and with twisted bosses like the rounded head of a drill or a coil of rope at the springing of the arches. The fourth bay eastwards is of later date, the capitals much under-cut, and the corbels at the apex of the string-course having birds among natural foliage. The fourth bay on the south side is very similar; the next has later work inserted again, for the shrine of Little St. Hugh, the second bay being like the northern three, and the first taken up with the staircase for the constable of the close, and a square grated window lighting the room in the organ-loft, already described. Only those who have seen the magnificent sculptured work on the side screens of the choir of Chartres, Amiens, and Notre Dame can appreciate what can be done in decorating these screens.
The last stone screen to be described is in Tattershall Collegiate Church, founded in 1439 by Ralph, Lord Cromwell, Lord Treasurer of England.
The pulpitum, or choir screen, is of stone, and is situated between the eastern piers of the crossing. It is approached by a broad stone step, wider at the southern than at the northern end. It is a solid screen-wall with a central passage, having on the north side a staircase leading to the loft above, and on the south side a door to a small room (in the same position as in the Lincoln Minster screen), lit by three quatrefoils into the nave. The western face of the screen consists of three recesses, with wide ogee-headed arches, cusped internally, and ending in finials which run straight up to the cornice of the loft and are there cut off. There is a string-course at the apex of the arches; the intervening spaces are filled with shallow panels, having arched and cusped heads. The northern and southern ends of the screen are chamfered off, and there are traces of some pedestal and tabernacle work in the broken stonework about the height of the string-course, and again below the spring of the arches. The whole of this west front is finished off with a cresting of Tudor flowers. The central doorway takes up one of the recesses, the oak doors being mainly original, though great hooks for hinges still exist in the stonework behind them. The other two recesses exhibit very evident manifestations of having once contained altars, there being small pillar piscinæ in the south side of each recess, and marks of where the altar slabs were fitted to the work behind. They were in the same position as those at Bishop Le Hart’s screen at Norwich, at the beautiful screen in Glasgow Cathedral, at Eton College, at the eastward screen of Gloucester Cathedral, and at Roche Abbey. Altars in the same position still exist abroad, as at Lierre, Aerschot, Dixmude, and Brou. At Louvain (St. Pierre) the side arches have, unfortunately, been opened out, and the altars removed, and the same process has been gone through with the side arches at Exeter Cathedral.
Holy Trinity Church, Tattershall.
On the eastern side of the screen at Tattershall, facing the chancel, is a doorway with a four-centred arch, square-headed above, with the spandrils filled in with the Tudor rose. Above the doorway, as at Lincoln, only here in stone, is a projecting three-sided feature ornamented with a band of panelling which extends across the whole width of the screen, and is similar to those already described on the western side. Below the band the screen-wall is blank, no doubt for the canopied stalls, of which there are some fragments as well as the stone bases left in the church. The upper edge of this front of the screen is finished off with Tudor flowers, which, however, are not pierced through completely as they were on the nave side. The loft is protected on each face, east and west, by a solid wall, 4 feet 7 inches in height, with a coped projecting portion behind the Tudor cresting on the west side. In the projection into the chancel there are two stone book-rests, one in the middle, 2 feet long by 1 foot 3 inches high, occupying the space behind the three middle Tudor flowers; it is 3 feet 7 inches from the floor, and has a ledge about 1½ inches wide at the lower edge to hold the book safely. The second one faces north-east, and occupies the space behind the two outer Tudor flowers; it is a couple of inches less in length. An example of much the same kind—a stone book-rest—can still be seen at the east side of the loft of the Jubé in the monastic church of Valleria at Sion, in the Rhone valley.
The rood-beam and rood probably stood across the chancel arch, above the loft, as there are marks on both pillars of considerable damage about two feet below the capitals.
From the south end of the loft a doorway gives access to a turret staircase leading up to the roof; the turret has evidently been higher, and has probably served as the bell turret for the Sanctus bell. The date of the screen has been supposed to be settled by an inscription recorded by Holles:—