DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6912#0024
16
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
About half of it, towards the east, is raised by one step. The pavement of this part
is of small square bricks of about four inches, and all the rooms have had the same
flooring. The ceiling is a plain vault. In front is a Norman arch, faced with
billet moulding. Along the east wall, over the altar, has been an inscription, of
which only the letters I. H. S. remain. On the north side of the altar is a small
arched door-way to a staircase in the tower, leading down to the church. On the
south side, immediately below the step, is a stone seat, under an ornamented canopy,
apparently the work of the thirteenth century, as is the east window, which had two
mullions with tracery. Some shields with arms, almost obliterated, remain in this
room; but of which enough is left to ascertain the time when all these apartments
(excepting the window, &c. at the east end) were rebuilt. One of these shields is
charged with the frette, borne by Maltravers, the heiress of which noble house was
married to the Earl of Arundel, who was lord and patron here during the greater part
of the reign of Henry VII. and sixteen years of Henry VIII. It is an impaled coat,
with the frette on the sinister side. There is a small door in the narrow passage
behind the prior's bed-room, by which the officiating priests and the servants could
enter the chapel without passing through the prior's apartments. Not the least curious
part of this room is the western side. It is of boards, over the stud-work, adorned with
a profusion of red roses with their leaves, on a white ground, in water-colours.
That so perishable a material, and so slight a decoration, should have endured so
long, is very singular. And it really does not seem possible to conceive, that this
particular embellishment should have been thought of at any other time than the
reign of Henry VII.*
The building adjoining the south end of the prior's lodge, [m] I would willingly
suppose was the hostillery. It is in a situation sufficiently remote from interference ;
a matter of very necessary consideration, as the monks were much annoyed by those
who claimed their hospitality. It appears to have been spacious enough to have
accommodated on its three stories, all those guests at least, who were neither enter-
tained by the prior on account of their quality, nor, on that of their poverty, sent to
the almonry.
* Blomefield says, it is apparent that these three rooms were originally one large chapel. He does not mention
any circumstance from which it appears, and I can certainly discern none. Every part but the few feet at the east
end, bears incontestable marks of the end of the fifteenth century, or beginning of the next. From its situation it
must have been a domestic chapel. And could the prior of Castle-Acre be conceived to have had one sixty feet
long ? I question if the abbot of St. Albans had 1
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
About half of it, towards the east, is raised by one step. The pavement of this part
is of small square bricks of about four inches, and all the rooms have had the same
flooring. The ceiling is a plain vault. In front is a Norman arch, faced with
billet moulding. Along the east wall, over the altar, has been an inscription, of
which only the letters I. H. S. remain. On the north side of the altar is a small
arched door-way to a staircase in the tower, leading down to the church. On the
south side, immediately below the step, is a stone seat, under an ornamented canopy,
apparently the work of the thirteenth century, as is the east window, which had two
mullions with tracery. Some shields with arms, almost obliterated, remain in this
room; but of which enough is left to ascertain the time when all these apartments
(excepting the window, &c. at the east end) were rebuilt. One of these shields is
charged with the frette, borne by Maltravers, the heiress of which noble house was
married to the Earl of Arundel, who was lord and patron here during the greater part
of the reign of Henry VII. and sixteen years of Henry VIII. It is an impaled coat,
with the frette on the sinister side. There is a small door in the narrow passage
behind the prior's bed-room, by which the officiating priests and the servants could
enter the chapel without passing through the prior's apartments. Not the least curious
part of this room is the western side. It is of boards, over the stud-work, adorned with
a profusion of red roses with their leaves, on a white ground, in water-colours.
That so perishable a material, and so slight a decoration, should have endured so
long, is very singular. And it really does not seem possible to conceive, that this
particular embellishment should have been thought of at any other time than the
reign of Henry VII.*
The building adjoining the south end of the prior's lodge, [m] I would willingly
suppose was the hostillery. It is in a situation sufficiently remote from interference ;
a matter of very necessary consideration, as the monks were much annoyed by those
who claimed their hospitality. It appears to have been spacious enough to have
accommodated on its three stories, all those guests at least, who were neither enter-
tained by the prior on account of their quality, nor, on that of their poverty, sent to
the almonry.
* Blomefield says, it is apparent that these three rooms were originally one large chapel. He does not mention
any circumstance from which it appears, and I can certainly discern none. Every part but the few feet at the east
end, bears incontestable marks of the end of the fifteenth century, or beginning of the next. From its situation it
must have been a domestic chapel. And could the prior of Castle-Acre be conceived to have had one sixty feet
long ? I question if the abbot of St. Albans had 1