176 DALE church: ITS STRUCTURAL PECULIARITIES. 



enter the south door. For a moment the eye fails to penetrate the 

 gloom ; but soon a medley of props and posts, beams and ceilings, 

 odd-shaped pews and benches, is dimly descried. Nothing is 

 straight or upright. What does it all mean ! Presently the 

 "madness " resolves itself into " method." 



We fmd that we have entered a square area — (see Plate V.), 

 marked off from the rest of the interior by two oak screens ; this 

 we will regard as the nave. This part of the Church is rather 

 dark, for, having no windows, all its light is borroA-ed from the 

 aisle and chancel. Passing through the eastern screen, we enter 

 the queerest of little chancels. The communion table — or, 

 rather, chest — is, Puritan fashion, in front of the reading desk, 

 which occupies the place the former usually does. The tottering 

 panelled pulpit of 1635 is at the north end of the desk ; and at 

 the opposite, is the clerk's seat, snugly sheltered in the corner of 

 the chancel. On this side, in front of the latter seat, is an ample 

 armchair of very domestic type and all a-glare with paint and 

 varnish, and decorated with scrolls and scallops. Is it the sediie? 

 It is popularly known as the " Bishop's Throne." The Earls of 

 Stanhope, the lords of the manor, were in former days " lay- 

 bishops " (as the marble tablet on the opposite wall has it) of the 

 peculiar of Dale Abbey. Immediately above this chair is the iron 

 safe ; and a little further to the right, and just within the aisle, 

 is the old Abbey font. What a curious collection of parochial 

 functions would there be represented if only the bier that hangs 

 on the west wall and the harmonium upstairs were also in the 

 chancel 1 The chalice is said to be one of the largest in England, 

 being nine inches high and fifteen inches around its ritn. 'J'he 

 chancel has an east window (c) of three lights, surmounted with a 

 shallow-pointed arch ; a north square-headed window (b) of two 

 lights ; and a small south square-headed light (d). 



The chancel for half its length and the whole of the nave are 

 open to the aisle. The nave is marked off from it by what 

 appears now as an open screen (k, 1) ; but it is in reality the 

 framework of a panelled partition with a doorway (m), the large 

 panels having long since been sawn out. The chancel screen 



