May 22. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



495 



below lias the legend : " Sante Christophere, ora 

 pro me." Tliis ancient window was presented to 

 tbe church by three members of the Borlase family. 

 Their benefaction is recorded in the inscription 

 along the cill of the window : 



" Orate pro animabus Cathetine Burlas, Nicolai 

 Burlas, et Johannis Vyvian, qui istam fenestram fieri 

 fecerunt." 



Another example of St. Christopher, bearing 

 the divine infent, is in one of the lights of the 

 three-light window over the altar of All Sairds' 

 Chu7'ch^ North Street, York. It is the work of the 

 fifteenth century. 



In the same city, St. Johns Church, Micklegate, 

 has two representations of St. Christopher in glass. 

 One is the window north of the altar, but it is 

 only a portion of the figure ; the other is in tlie 

 window south of the altar, and of perpendicular 

 character. \n St. Martin-le- Grand, Coney Street, 

 in the sixth or eastern window of the north aisle, 

 is a figure of St. Christopher, of date about 1450. 

 St. Michael-le-Belfroy, in the same city, has two 

 figures of the' saint: one, of perpendicular cha- 

 racter, in the window north of the altar ; the 

 other, a fragment, in the fourth window from 

 the east end on the south side, of date between 

 1540 and 1550. Holy Trinity Church, Goodram- 

 gate, possesses a very beautiful figure of the saint. 

 It forms the fifth of a series of five large figures in 

 the east window of the church, and seems to bear 

 the date 1470. 



The second question is, " What is the real mean- 

 ing of the representations of St. Christopher that 

 are so frequently found on the north walls of 

 churches?' I cannot agree with Mr. J. East- 

 wood in tliinking that the explanation he gives 

 from Sacred and Legendary Art is sufficiently satis- 

 Juctory. It appears to me that the figures of St. 

 Christopher were meant to symbolise the privilege 

 enjoyed by the faithful of receiving tlie body and 

 blood of Christ, and thus becoming Christo-feri. 

 The emblem may have had its origin in the 

 earliest ages, when the disciplina arcani was carried 

 out. This opinion receives strength from the cir- 

 cumstance, that Christopher was a name assumed 

 by the saint, and not his baptismal name. The 

 extraordinary powers of cure spoken of in verses 

 often inscribed below the figures of this saint, 

 were understood by the faithful to allude to the 

 efficacy of the Holy Communion, that made them 

 Christophers, i. e. persons bearing their blessed 

 Saviour, not on their shoulders, but within their 

 breasts. His figures in sculpture and painting 

 are always represented as colossal, to signify that 

 this heavenly food makes each of the faithful " as 

 a giant to run the way " (Ps. xix. 5.) This ex- 

 planation will probably satisfy E. A. H. L. that the 

 important position occupied by St. Christopher in 

 the iconography of the medieval church is to be 

 solved by its symbolical signification. 



In addition to the representations of this saint 

 in painted glass mentioned above, E. A. H. L. 

 will find mention of another specimen in the last 

 number of the Archceologicat Journal. It is ia 

 private hands, being the property of Mr. Lucas, 

 who purchased a collection of specimens of old 

 glass some years since at Guildford, said to liave 

 come from an old mansion in Surrey. The speci- 

 men in question is described as " St. Christopher 

 carrying our Saviour — an octagonal piece of 

 glass." — P. 101. 



He will also find, in the same place, that a mural 

 painting of St. Christopher has been lately disco- 

 covered in the chancel of Gawsworth Church, 

 Cheshire, of which a description is given in p. 103. 



Cetbep. 



E. A. H. L. asks if there is any known represent- 

 ation of St. Christopher in painted glass. There 

 is one in All Saints, York, engraved in Weale's 

 Papers ; and there is a small one on a brass in Tat- 

 tershall Church. C. T. 



For information on this subject, I would 

 refer E. A. H. L. to Warton, Poeti-y, vol. i. p. 451. ; 

 Coryatt's Crudities, vol. i. p. 29. ; Rudder's 

 Gloucestershire, p. 286.; Gage's ife7?g-7-a»e, p. 64.; 

 Winckelm. Stosch, ch. i. n. 103. 



On a loose print of " Painted Glass at Leicester," 

 Tlirosby del. 1788, now before me, is a represent- 

 ation of him who was once Psychicus the savage, 

 but now the holy Saint Christopher, figured, as 

 usual, under the likeness of a man of gigantic 

 stature, carrying on his shoulder the little child 

 Jesus, through the broad and deep waters of a 

 turbulent river, and steadying his steps with an 

 uprooted palm-tree laden with fruit, which he 

 bears in his hands by way of staff". He is here 

 exhibited in more seemly habiliments, and as a 

 personage of much more dignified and venerable 

 appearance, than in the well-known picture on the 

 walls of Wotton Church. The latter, however, is 

 a portraiture of superior antiquarian interest, on 

 account of its accessories, wherein St. Christopher's 

 especial office, as patron of field sports, is, with 

 much rudeness it is true, but most efficiently and 

 fully illustrated. 



In the extract given by J. Eastwood from 

 Sacred and Legendary Art, we have merely the 

 supposititious conclusions of an ingenious imagin- 

 ation, introduced to supply a void which the ac- 

 complished writer was unable otherwise to fill up. 

 There is a pretty little work published by Burns, 

 and entitled St. Christopher ; a Painting in Ford- 

 holme Church, which contains, much too much, 

 however, in the suspicious form of a modern reli- 

 gious allegory, what professes to be the authentic 

 " Legend " of this saint. Cowgill. 



E. a. H. L. makes the inquiry whether " there 

 are any known representations of St. Christopher 



