47 On Edington Church, and Memorials of By the Rev. ARTHUR FANE. It devolved upon me at the last year's Archæological Meeting at Salisbury, to endeavour to elucidate the antiquities and throw some light upon the historical associations of an ancient church of much beauty and rare interest in the Vale of Wylye,-a church, too, which was the centre of many stirring historical traditions, but which remains at once a monument of the munificence, splendour, and architectural style of past ages, and of the neglect and want of taste of more recent times. It chances, from near residence, that another church has specially interested me, which in all particulars seems a twin church to that of St. Mary's, Boyton. The Church of All Saints, Edington, to which I purpose calling the attention of my brother archæologists, is a far grander and more imposing building than its sister church; it is also as remarkable a specimen of the transition from one style to another, as the mortuary chapel of the Giffards at Boyton. As in the latter building we see the struggle between the harsher and more severe times of early English, gradually blending into the trefoil or quatrefoil of Decorated architecture, and the fuller foliations of the architecture of the middle of the 14th century warming the acute cuspings and plain mouldings of the 13th; so in the church of Edington, we may observe the straight and more formal lines of the Perpendicular dispersing the elegant tracery and cutting the flowery developments of the 14th century. We see at Boyton, so to speak, Henry the 3rd contending with Edward the 1st; whilst at Edington we see the struggle of Edward the 3rd with Richard the 2nd. Without further delay-except to entreat the most favourable consideration for a paper roughly sketched amidst the engrossing cares, the ceaseless anxieties of a large parish, and the usual share of social and domestic occupations which I believe entangle antiquarian quite as much as more modern students-I will proceed to the details of the church and parish of Edington. The table-land which, dispersed in several groups, is called by the common appellation of Salisbury Plain, terminates from Westbury to the high road hanging over Earlstoke in a series of ramparts of turf, which seem to stand out against the Vale of Pewsey with the sheer massiveness of a fortified town. At no point does the upper plain rise more abruptly than where the down lands, forming a bason in which the little hamlet of Bratton is placed, sweep round to the northwestward and rise up almost perpendicularly from the Vale of Pewsey below. Close under this natural rampart, about four miles from Westbury, a rich fringing of gigantic elms and walnuts surrounds the village of Edington, whilst on a sort of open space where cross roads meet, the magnificent old church startles the passer by with its almost cathedral proportions and rich outline of pinnacle, and battlement, and tower. The village is mentioned by Camden-"At Edindon, heretofore called Eathendone, King Alfred won the most glorious victory that ever was obtained over the ravaging Danes, and drove them to that extremity that they took a solemn oath immediately to depart the land." It would appear, on the authority of Tanner and Leland, that as early as the reign of John, the Church and Manor of Edington were held under the Abbey of Romsey, and that the church was held as a prebendal benefice under that Abbey. William of Edington, Bishop of Winchester, and so well known by the commencement of that work of restoration in Winchester Cathedral which was so gloriously carried forward by his successor, William of Wykeham, determined to acknowledge God's goodness in raising him to so high a post in His Church, and built the present church; and furthermore, moved by the same pious gratitude and zeal, founded subsequently a college for a dean and twelve ministers, to the honour of the Blessed Virgin, St. Katharine, and All Saints. The confirmation of the good Bishop's grant and establishment seems to have been made in 1347; so that we may, without any stretch of credulity, believe that whilst the mighty and victorious Edward was haughtily demanding the lives of the patriotic citizens of Calais, the good Bishop was in the conqueror's camp, pleading for the royal protection to his munificent endowment at the lowly village perched at the foot of Salisbury Plain; and the pious Bishop's prayers may have been blended with Philippa's, that the ignominious halters should be removed from the necks of the brave Eustace and his fellow-patriots. Subsequently to the first grant to the dean and ministers, at the request of the Black Prince the government of the new monastery was altered, and a body of Monks of the order of Bonhommes, a ramification from the Augustinian root, became the proprietors of the newly-founded church. Edington and Ashridge in Bucks, are the only two places in England, according to Tanner, where this order existed. Probably from that time to the dissolution, the monastery of Edington contained the usual amount of knowledge and ignorance-of true devotion to God, and hypocritical pretence the same amount of zeal and apathy, of virtue and vice, which at this day is to be discovered in any community of men. When the Reformation-that fiery tide of religious zeal and irreligious avarice-that mingled storm of godly reformation and ungodly destruction-fell upon the monasteries, Edington and its community of Bonhommes fared no better than the rest. The revenue of the monastery amounted to the sum of £442 9s. 7d., or, according to Speed, to £521 12s. 5d. The whole monastery buildings, lands, and tenements were granted to Seymour of Sudeley, the Protector's brother. On his fall, the site was granted to William Powlett Lord St. John, from whom it passed to the Duke of Bolton, and finally became the property of the Taylor family, to whom it now belongs, in the person of the worthy High Sheriff of this county. I purpose giving this meeting a few details of the church, which rivals almost any sacred edifice in the diocese, both in size and beauty of detail. Placed at the foot of the great down ramparts of Salisbury Plain, this beautiful building stands out in bold relief H against the opposing hill. Its proportions are beyond most parochial churches, as the following dimensions will show :—length of nave, 75 feet; breadth of ditto, including aisles, 52 feet 8 inches; height of ditto, 45 feet; square of tower, 25 feet 4 inches by 20 feet 6 inches; length of chancel, 54 feet; breadth of ditto, 23 feet 9 inches; transepts, length 71 feet 9 inches, breadth 23 feet 7 inches. Outside, the church strikes us by the beauty of the stone and the clearness of the cuttings. The state of repair outside is far from giving the idea of the decay which strikes the visitor on entering this magnificent fabric. The drawings which I now exhibit, the work of entirely amateur artists, will show you the peculiarity of the style, as well as the exquisite beauty of this church. First, the east window is one of the most elegant specimens I am acquainted with, of that style which we might call Decorated Perpendicular. The upright line of the mullions, the general arrangement of the mouldings, and some of the tracery is almost Perpendicular; whilst the upper portion partakes of the rich tracery and the flowing and graceful arrangements of the Decorated style. The general effect is almost perfect. If the straight lines of the centre mullions seem stiff and elongated, observe the way in which the stone seems to spring into flowery grace and lightness in the tracery above the lower portion of the window. Observing this window and the rich and exquisite carving of the north and south and side windows of the chancel, as well as the statuary in the inside, we cannot doubt but that this part is the work of the predecessor of William of Wykeham-that William of Edington whose windows and arches in Winchester Cathedral are the forerunners of the more decided Perpendicular work of his more celebrated successor. Nor can we fail to blend the historical associations with the architectural, and to realize the pious Prelate submitting the plans of his new church to the warlike Edward, and perhaps opposing the more stiff and less elegant style of Wykeham, whose innovations were then beginning to be felt. I will draw your attention to the side windows also of the chancel, which are formed of Decorated quatrefoils in very perfect proportion and finish. The tower also has a window which has the same peculiarity of style which distinguishes the east: four slightly cusped trefoils meet at a centre, and the junction of the four sides forms a cross pattée of elegant design. The windows and exterior of the nave generally are inferior and certainly later than the chancel, especially on the north side, where the arches of the cloisters may be traced above the wall, and the malformation of the side aisle windows may be accounted for by the abstraction of the cloisters which formed an integral part of the original plan. On the north side of the church stood the conventual buildings, connected with the church by a continuous cloister. The traces of the abbot's pond, the massive stone walls of the abbey gardens, and a majestic yew tree of colossal proportions, form a collection of objects which seem to complete the interest which the church itself must excite. But I must hasten to the inside. Here the decay and neglect of past ages form a sad contrast to the traces of glorious beauty with which this church must have been adorned when fresh from the chisel of William of Edington's workmen. Pews unsightly and of all heights-the floor a chaotic plateau, with traces of stolen brasses and ruptured inscriptions-green and dank wallsa huge oven, similar to a brewing vat, to warm the church-the mutilated statuary of William of Edington-all speak of the wreck of magnificence and beauty caused by the hasty zealots of the Reformation, and of the apathy of many succeeding ages. Entering by a lofty southern porch, with a parvise or priest's room above, we find the nave divided from the side aisles by six lofty arches on each side, under one of which is a singular altar tomb, of which I' am able to present a drawing. The tomb seems to have combined a brass memorial to the dead, which has been removed by sacrilegious hands, with a small oratory wherein the priest might repeat the daily service for the souls of the departed. 1 Resuming our walk through the nave, and hoping as we pass on that the day will come when the hand of restoration shall cleanse those noble pillars and arches from the three centuries' white and ochre wash which cloaks their mouldings, begrimes their fair proportions, and disfigures the once beautiful stone-we arrive at the tower. Nothing can well be more graceful or elegant than |