186 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°a S. X Sept. 8. '60. 



bnt one M'' Belladine, a sad High Church Dog, who will 

 certainly take the Town's people's part against y^ brave 

 Draggoons. It is a pity to baulk them, for a little en- 

 couragement and a little plunder will make the Dogs of 

 any side. Yr Ldshp may command w*"^ these troops the 

 whole county. 



" I have likewise desird orders about burning and pull- 

 ing down houses. 



" Y"^ L^sp. knows my character: I love to be in action, 

 and y Ldsp shall always find I am devoted to my Supe- 

 riors, and am y' Ldsps most ready officer and Slave. 

 " . . . Sow a dignify'd 



Clergj'man." 



FIRE-PLACE IN CHURCH TOWERS. 



Many architectural details in the towers of our 

 parish chui'ches have escaped the observation of 

 most architects and antiquaries, or, if noticed, 

 their efforts have made little pi'ogress in making 

 clear the purposes for which each compartment 

 Tvas destined to be applied. 



The remarks in this notice will be confined to a 

 single appendage in the basement story, leaving 

 the differently formed recesses there, and what- 

 ever may be found in the bell-sollar for some 

 future communication. 



Fire-hearths in church towers are far from 

 common ; but as they do exist, the object of their 

 construction is at least worthy of investigation. 



In the Glossary of Architecture they are dis- 

 missed with only the following sentence appended 

 as a foot-note at p. 130. : — 



" Fire-places are sometimes found in churches, but 

 seldom of an earlier date than the end of the fifteenth 

 century." 



As there is no reference to the tower, or to any 

 part of the church in which such conveniences 

 were to be found, it is necessary to refer to exist- 

 ing examples. In the tower of Bradeston church 

 is one of the most perfect remains of a fire-hearth 

 and tunnel ; and it may be added, it has been 

 found practically useful to labourers of modern 

 times when employed within the church : the 

 tube is carried to the height of about eight feet, 

 without any external or internal projection from 

 the otherwise solid rubble walls, and the aperture 

 on the north face is without the slightest embel- 

 lishment. In the tower of Ranworth church, 

 both in Norfolk, is precisely the same formed 

 hearth, but the flue, if it exists, is no longer to be 

 detected. 



Fire-places are frequently found in the rooms 

 over church porches, where they probably were 

 intended for the use of an anchorite ; but the 

 basement room of a tower could not have been 

 appropriated to the purposes of an anchorage. 



The subject has occupied the attention of some 

 •writers in the truly important work. The Archceo- 

 logia ; and the reference there being to an ex- 

 ample from the same county makes it more 

 particularly worthy of notice. The church of the 



village of Thorp Abbots has this remarkable ap- 

 pendage, which is thus summarily dismissed by the 

 contributor writing on the subject of circular 

 towers : — 



" On the north side of the basement is a chimnej', the 

 flue of which runs up the wall"" nine inches square, the 

 smoke escaping from a small north loop." 



A foot-note is then added : — 



" ^ This flue is original. At Bedlake, in Yorkshire, a 

 tower-chimney occurs; and at Mettingham Church, in 

 Suffolk, there is a flue in the porch, with an aperture for 

 a fire- cradle or grate." — ArchcBologia, vol. xxiii. p. 13. 



Whether certain apartments in the church 

 towers were ever intended for village or local 

 prisons, is a subject deserving investigation, an"d 

 may lead to an explanatory development of the 

 present inquiry ; as the church porch was, till 

 within a very recent period, claimed by the house- 

 less as a legal place of refuge. H. D'Avenet. 



Minax fiatti. 

 Dactylology fokeshadowed. — The use of a 

 manual alphabet, as affording means of inter- 

 course to the deaf and dumb, or, by a system of 

 digital notation, facilitating arithmetical instruc- 

 tion, is literally anticipated in the following text : 

 "He teacheth with \xis fingers " (Proverbs, vi. 13.) 



F. Phillott. 



FoNTEVBAULT AbBEY AND THE PoYAL StATUES. 



— In Murray's Handbook for France (1859), p. 

 201., describing the route down the Loire, may 

 be found the following Note of these interesting- 

 relics. Might not the concluding paragraph be 

 converted into a Query, and so be suitable to the 

 pages of " N. & Q.," for the purpose of ventilating 

 the subject ? — 



" Three miles up the little retired and wooded valley 

 behind Montsoreau lies the Abbey of Fontevrault, one of 

 the richest in France in ancient times, .... It has an 

 interest to Englishmen, from having been the burial- 

 place of several of our Plantagenet Kings .... The 

 Abbey is now converted into a prison ; one of the largest 

 in France . . . The church, approached by a covered way, 

 from which you look through loopholes into the prison - 

 yards, is an interesting building of Romanesque archi- 

 tecture . . . The royal monuments are transferred to the 

 south transept, enclosed by bolts and bars and grilles, in 

 a dark corner, mutilated and broken by the Vandals of 

 the Revolution, who rifled the graves of their contents, 

 and scattered the royal dust. The effigies, in spite of the 

 injuries they received, are interesting from the evident 

 marks they exhibit of being portraits ; they retain still a 

 little of the colouring with which they were ornamented. 

 They are recumbent statues of Henrj' II. and Richard 

 Cceur de Lion, represented in their robes, without ar- 

 mour, the drapery of complicated execution : Richard is 

 remarkable for his lofty stature (6J feet) and broad fore- 

 head ; he wears moustaches and a beard ; his hair is cut 

 short. The two female effigies are in better preservation ; 

 they represent Eleanor of Guienne, Queen of Henrj' II., 

 and" Isabelle d'Angouleme, widow of King John. The last 

 a statue of considerable beauty. It is much to be desired 



