116 Some Earl^ Features of Stockton Church, Wilts. 



Sophia, Bayswater, London, 5th February, 1882, the evangelist, or 

 gospeller, after receiving- benediction, as in the Latin Church, ascen- 

 ded the lofty pulpit and read therefrom most beautifully and dis- 

 tinctly in Greek the holy Gospel for the Sunday, the Parable of the 

 Prodigal Son. 



On the east wall of the nave of Stockton Church one poor corbel 

 remains on the north side of the doorway, in the place of an impost. 

 It is clear that there was another corbel on the south side of the 

 doorway, but it was cut away in a former generation, for the fixing 

 of a pulpit. A third corbel is remembered on the north side of the 

 north hagioscope, but it was inadvertently removed during the 

 recent restoration. Of course there was a fourth corbel on the 

 south side of the south hagioscope. 



The term rood screen is misleading, because it seems to imply 

 that a chancel screen is necessarily connected with a rood. 



The Greek screen is usually surmounted by a cross, on which are 

 painted or incised, but not sculptured in relief, the figures. Our Lord 

 on the cross, the Blessed Virgin standing on one side and St. John 

 the Evangelist on the other. In the West these figures were 

 sculptured, and came to be called the rood. A distinct rood beam 

 was sometimes added, to carry these figures. Rood lofts were some- 

 times connected with chancel screens, but were not introduced till 

 about the fourteenth century. 



We have some mediaeval chancel screens so light and open that 

 they only veil the altar and east window, without obscuring them, 

 as the rood screen at Mere, Wilts. Many beautiful screens of the 

 same character have been constructed of late years for the Cathedrals 

 of Ely, Hereford, Salisbury, and for many smaller Churches. 



The gates of the Salisbury screen are made to open westward into 

 the nave, as do those at Stockton, which are shown in the drawing 

 annexed. 



No one in the Church of England is likely to re-produce the 

 Stockton arrangement, except, perhaps, for missionary purposes. 

 We are greatly indebted to the Rector, Squire, and Churchwardens 

 of the parish; I must add, also to the architects, Mr. Benjamin 

 Ferrey, F.S.A., and Mr. Edmund Benjamin Ferrey, for preserving. 



