DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6912#0043
30
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
blue velvet, and another of damask, and an altar-cloth, £4."—" Item, For a cloth of
buckram for the communion-table, 4s."—" Item, For taking down the stairs in the
abbey, 7*'- 8rf." Sir Anthony Denny, the courtier to whom Henry the Eighth
granted the site of the abbey, with many lands, was the man who first ventured to
inform the monarch of his approaching dissolution. His wife was the daughter of
Sir Philip Champernoun, of Modbury, in Devonshire ; a lady of great beauty and
learning, and a friend to the reformed religion ; she sent eight shillings by her man,
in a violet coat to Anne Askew, when imprisoned in the Compter. " A small sum,"
says Farmer, " yet a great gift, so dangerous was it to help any in her condition."
The buildings of this monastery were once so extensive as to inclose a space of
many acres; yet such has been the vengeance of modern fanatics against their
more wealthy predecessors, for preaching what they deemed a false religion, that
nothing now remains of this stately pile, but the nave of the abbey-church. The
transepts, choir, and lady's chapel are all destroyed, as well as the cloisters, chapter-
house, refectory, and various other buildings of the monastery. At the S. E. ex-
tremity of the nave is a chapel of the Tudor times, much defaced and altered, (See
PI. I.—D. E.) and beneath it is a crypt of rather singular construction. The interior
of the nave consists of seven divisions or compartments on each side ; as displayed
by the annexed Plate 2. The height comprehends three stories or tiers, and the
whole style of building so much resembles the nave of the Cathedral of Durham, as
to determine the time of their erection to have been nearly contemporary, and that
they were both the works of Norman artists. The large cylindrical pillars sup-
porting semi-circular arches, and ornamented with spiral and zigzag grooves, (which
some writers imagine were once filled with brass,) are in both the same, although
the clustered columns are larger at Durham, and contain more pilasters, than those
in the present building. Upon the whole, however, I have no hesitation in ven-
turing to give my opinion that some of the lower part of the present edifice belongs
to the church built by Harold, but at the same time the general style may be safely
called early Norman, which was, no doubt, of Saxon origin.
In addition to the preceding account, by my much esteemed friend, Mr. Burdon,
I shall subjoin the opinions of four other writers respecting the age of Waltham
Church. These opinions may serve to amuse the speculating reader: as they dis-
ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES.
blue velvet, and another of damask, and an altar-cloth, £4."—" Item, For a cloth of
buckram for the communion-table, 4s."—" Item, For taking down the stairs in the
abbey, 7*'- 8rf." Sir Anthony Denny, the courtier to whom Henry the Eighth
granted the site of the abbey, with many lands, was the man who first ventured to
inform the monarch of his approaching dissolution. His wife was the daughter of
Sir Philip Champernoun, of Modbury, in Devonshire ; a lady of great beauty and
learning, and a friend to the reformed religion ; she sent eight shillings by her man,
in a violet coat to Anne Askew, when imprisoned in the Compter. " A small sum,"
says Farmer, " yet a great gift, so dangerous was it to help any in her condition."
The buildings of this monastery were once so extensive as to inclose a space of
many acres; yet such has been the vengeance of modern fanatics against their
more wealthy predecessors, for preaching what they deemed a false religion, that
nothing now remains of this stately pile, but the nave of the abbey-church. The
transepts, choir, and lady's chapel are all destroyed, as well as the cloisters, chapter-
house, refectory, and various other buildings of the monastery. At the S. E. ex-
tremity of the nave is a chapel of the Tudor times, much defaced and altered, (See
PI. I.—D. E.) and beneath it is a crypt of rather singular construction. The interior
of the nave consists of seven divisions or compartments on each side ; as displayed
by the annexed Plate 2. The height comprehends three stories or tiers, and the
whole style of building so much resembles the nave of the Cathedral of Durham, as
to determine the time of their erection to have been nearly contemporary, and that
they were both the works of Norman artists. The large cylindrical pillars sup-
porting semi-circular arches, and ornamented with spiral and zigzag grooves, (which
some writers imagine were once filled with brass,) are in both the same, although
the clustered columns are larger at Durham, and contain more pilasters, than those
in the present building. Upon the whole, however, I have no hesitation in ven-
turing to give my opinion that some of the lower part of the present edifice belongs
to the church built by Harold, but at the same time the general style may be safely
called early Norman, which was, no doubt, of Saxon origin.
In addition to the preceding account, by my much esteemed friend, Mr. Burdon,
I shall subjoin the opinions of four other writers respecting the age of Waltham
Church. These opinions may serve to amuse the speculating reader: as they dis-