276 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2«"» S. VIII. Oct. 1. '59. 



May we not guess ? 



These suggestions on "grotesques in churches" 

 are submitted in the hope that they may elicit far- 

 ther information from those readers of " N. & Q." 

 whose knowledge of the subject is more exact and 

 extensive than the writer's. Thomas Boys. 



Once upon a time (as the story books say) when 

 I was in Normandy, I tarried a week at St. Lo. 

 One day I was walking through the town in com- 

 pany with a French gentleman, a resident there, and 

 I stopped to examine the west front of the cathedral. 

 Amongst other features, my companion pointed 

 out to me several remarkable figures sculptured 

 in stone, at some height from the ground, perhaps 

 fifty or sixty feet. They were both indecent and 

 disgusting. If I recollect right there were both 

 men and women, either eating or drinking to 

 excess, or by their forms, attitudes, or features 

 exhibiting the efTects of excess ; or satisfying un- 

 natural desires, or the like. I expressed my sur- 

 prise that such things should be represented on 

 churches, but said that there were instances in 

 England as well as in France ; and I asked him 

 if he had ever heard any explanation for such a 

 practice. The reason, he said, was this : such sub- 

 jects of excess were depicted in order to hold them 

 up to reprobation. Thus, a drunkard was repre- 

 sented in order that all men might see how despi- 

 cable a wretch he appeared when in that state. 

 They were examples of the vices personified ; 

 they were so put before our eyes, in order to dis- 

 gust us with the sight of them, and in order to 

 hold them up to derision and to denunciation. I 

 had not heard this explanation before, and there- 

 fore I now give it. The intention might be good ; 

 but when these grotesques generally raise a smile, 

 the end is certainly not gained. My informant 

 farther told me that similar sculptures were to be 

 found on Notre Dame at Paris. When I was 

 subsequently in Paris, I took an occasion to exa- 

 mine Notre Dame ; but the figures were so placed 

 or else so high that I could not make them out. 



P. Hutchinson. 



The answer given in the latter of the above 

 passages (2°^ S. viii. 196.) may explain the parti- 

 cular grotesque referred to, but I for one have al- 

 ways understood that such figures were connected 

 with the hatred the secular clergy bore towards the 

 •' regulars " and mendicant orders. A still better 

 explanation is given in the following note which 

 I have just come across in Parker's edition of 

 Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose : — 



" Hatred, Felonj', &c. . . are painted on the outside of 

 the wall which encloses the garden in which blooms the 

 Eose, to symbolize the fact that these things are destruc- 

 tive of Love, and therefore excluded from his dominions. 

 The same idea is conveyed by the symbolical figures of 

 grinning demons, sometimes in indecent attitudes, carved 



on the gurgoyles and other parts of the outsides of 

 churches, to show that the passions they represent are 

 destructive of Christian faith, and are therefore excluded 

 from the temple."— (P. 28.) 



J. Eastwood. 



Pyne and Povlet (2°^ S. viii. 223.) — In the 

 Calendar of State Papers, there is a reference to a 

 letter, which would give Ithueiel the informa- 

 tion he wants : — 



" June 12, 1627. William Wabrond to John Poulett, 

 wishes him to know of some speeches dispersed through 

 the country by Hugh Pyne's son, viz. that it can never 

 be well with England until there be means made that 

 the Duke's head may be set ( ?let) fall from his shoulders. 

 This he was informed by William Collier, who is M''. 

 Windham's man, and M''. Windham is Arthur Pyne's 

 brother-in-law." 



There are other papers connected with the 

 matter, among them an opinion of the judges, 

 given in a letter of Attorney-Gen. Heath, 8 Dec, 

 that the words testified against Mr. Pyne do Hot 

 constitute treason ; a petition of Hugh Pyne's, 

 without date, complaining of " his having been a 

 long time restrained of his liberty, and held from 

 his practise in the law ; " and a petition from cer- 

 tain witnesses, " praying for allowance for at- 

 tending 28 days Mich, term, and 18 days Hil. 

 term, 1628, concerning Mr. Hugh Pyne." 



MONSON. 



Ithueiel will find some useful information re- 

 specting Pyne and Poulett in Mr. Bruce's Calen- 

 dar of State Papers (vols. i. and ii.), Charles I. 

 I have not leisure to make the extracts for him, 

 but as those volumes contain admirable and co- 

 pious Indices, there will be no difficulty in the 

 investigation. John, afterwards Lord Poulett, in 

 a letter to Nicholas, Nov. 27, 1626, expresses a 

 wish " that Pyne's tongue were tied, so that he 

 were not suffered to plead in the King's Courts, 

 which were a punishment to him, who makes his 

 living by his tongue, no less grevous than hang- 

 ing." ROTALIST. 



The Great St. Leger (2°'' S. viii. 225.) — The 

 following extract from the Manchester Guardian 

 of 15th Sept. answers to some extent the Query of 

 LucENS A NON LucBNDO, bcsidcs furnishing other 

 interesting particulars concerning this race. 



R. E. L. 

 " The St. Leger race was instituted in the year 1776, by 

 the late Colonel St. Leger, of Park-hill, near Doncaster, 

 but it was not until two or three years afterwards that it 

 was called the ' St. Leger ' at the suggestion of the then 

 Marquis of Rockingham, at a dinner at the Red Lion, at 

 that time the head inn of Doncaster, in compliment to 

 the gentleman with whom the race originated. When 

 the contest first came off, there were only six subscribers, 

 and five horses ran, the winner being Allabaculia, who 

 was the property of the above-mentioned nobleman, and 

 was ridden by J. Singleton ; a filly by Trusty coming in 



