PETERBOROUGH SOKE 



PETERBOROUGH 



coffin with quatrcfoiled circles and engaged shafts on 

 its vertical sides ; the end panel has been lost, and 

 a stone with a sunic circle containing foliage takes 

 its place. It is very like those still in position 

 above the arcade on the north wall of the frater, and 

 may have come thence. In the coffin was found the 

 body of Abbot Alexander, ob. 1227. The effigies 

 follow a general type, with minor variations. All are 

 in mass vestments, and hold a crosier in the right hand 

 and a book in the left. The crosier staff sometimes 

 goes diagonally across the body, its lower point entering 

 the mouth of a dragon at the feet of the effigy. 



In the New Building is a much damaged stone effigy 

 of 16th-century date, also in mass vestments, and 

 mitred. It is said to be that of John Chambers, last 

 abbot and first bishop, who died in 1556, but the 

 work is earlier than the date of his death. 



There are several indents of brasses in the church, 

 the most important being that of Abbot Godfrey of 

 Crowland, ob. 1321, while of later monuments the 

 mutilated mural monument of Sir Humphrey Orme, 

 in the south aisle of the New Building, is worthy of 

 notice, if only as a relic of the Puritan excesses 

 of 1643. In the Galilee are a number of stones 

 with indents of brasses, and this part of the church 

 was at one time the usual burial place for minor 

 canons. 



Old Scarlett's picture, at the west end of the nave, 

 north of the central doorway, deserves a passing 

 mention. How far it represents the original painting 

 made after his death in 1594 is doubtful ; but there 

 are records of its repainting in 1665 and 1747, and a 

 drawing of 1721 ' shows a very different picture from 

 that now existing. The two most famous monuments 

 in the church, those of Queen Katharine of Ar.igon 

 and Mary Queen of Scots, have left but little trace. 

 They stood in the east bays of the presbytery arcades. 

 Queen Katharine's tomb on the north. Queen Mar)''s 

 on the south. The former, erected about 1535, was 

 enclosed by screens or grates, and from the fragments 

 which remain seems to have been a simple altar tomb 

 of grey marble with lozenge-shaped panels of a stereo- 

 typed pattern made in large quantities in London. 

 It was covered with a hearse and black velvet pall, and 

 m.ay have had an altar at the head of the tomb. The 

 whole was completely destroyed in 1643, and a 

 modern black marble slab now marks its site. Of 

 Queen Mary's tomb, made shortly after her execution 

 in 1587, nothing remains. Her body was removed 

 to Westminster by James I, and nothing was left to 

 destroy in 1643 but an achievement of her arms hung 

 on a pillar close by. 



Of modern monuments those to Archbishop Magee 

 and Bishop Creighton are the most conspicuous. 



The cathedral possesses a fine set of silver-gilt plate, 

 including a large cup and cover paten of 1569, a paten 

 of 1634, a cup and cover paten and two large flagons 

 of 1638, an alms dish with embossed floral patterns 

 on the rim of about 1650, three cups of 1836, 1852, 

 and 1868, and a paten of 187 1. 



Before 1 831 there were ten bells, and in I 541 the 

 number was the same, with four others 'in other 

 several places of the houses.' Five were sold in 1S31, 

 all being by Henry Penn, 1 709. Of the remaining 

 five one was recast in 183 I, and the rest are of 1709, 

 with Bishop Cumberland's name on the tenor. The 

 Custumal mentions that there were formerly — i.e.. 



before the date of its compilation — nine bells in/ra 

 choTum, which probably means that they were in 

 the 1 2th-century central tower, and were removed 

 at its destruction in the 14th centur)-. There was, 

 at any rate, one bell in the lantern which took 

 its place. 



The registers begin in 161 5, the second book dating 

 from 1756, and the third from 1784. 



The account books, beginning in the latter years 

 of the 1 6th century, are of considerable interest, but 

 cannot be further noted here. 



In the library there is a most interesting chartulary 

 of Peterborough Abbey known as the Swapham 

 book. From this volume the chronicles of Peter- 

 borough, printed by Sparke, were taken, and from it 

 Gunton obtained much of the information embodied 

 in his History of Peterborough. There is also a small 

 chartulary and a collection of accounts and court rolls 

 of the abbey manors. 



Nothing definite is known of the buildings other 

 than the church in the Saxon monaster}', but it seems 

 that the Saxon cloister and its surrounding buildings 

 must have been left standing till the beginning of the 

 1 2th centur)'. When Ernulf came to Peterborough 

 in 1 107 he found a new chapter-house in the process 

 of building, probably the first work undertaken in a 

 general renewal of the offices of the house. By 1 1 14, 

 when he was unwillingly translated to the see of 

 Rochester, he had finished the new chapter-house, 

 dorter and reredorter, and had begun building the 

 frater.' This was just finished by 1 1 16, the date of 

 the great fire which destroyed the Saxon church, as 

 we are told that the monks had then only dined in it 

 for three days. The east and south sides of the 

 cloister had thus been renewed, and they fortunately 

 escaped being burnt, though all the rest of the house 

 is said to have been destroyed. This seems to have 

 been an overstatement, such as often occurs in the 

 case of fires, for immediately afterwards, in the account 

 of the burning of the tower of the church, the chroni- 

 cler says that live coals were blown from the tower on 

 to the abbot's house, so that all that was left seemed 

 in danger of being burnt. The abbot's house was 

 therefore not completely destroyed, and as the tower 

 was almost certainly at the west of the church, the 

 house may have been in the same relative position as 

 the later abbot's house — on the west of the cloister. 

 Nothing in the records would justify the idea that 

 Ernulf had done anything to the west side of the 

 cloister, but the wall now standing in this position 

 contains features which are older than any other work 

 above ground at Peterborough, and cannot be later 

 than his time, or on the other hand many years 

 earlier. These are three blocked round-headed door- 

 ways, two near the south end of the wall and one 

 near the north end. The southernmost has lost 

 whatever detail it may have had, but the second door- 

 way has a plain round arch, with a label ornamented 

 with alternating segments of circles set at right angles 

 to the wall face. The jambs are square, xvith a cham- 

 fered abacus at the springing of the arch, and below 

 it on each jamb a deeply-cut cross. The third door- 

 way, near the north end, has lost its label, but retains 

 a plain round arch and recessed jambs with shafts and 

 fluted capitals, nearly hidden by blocking. This may 

 h.ive been the entrance to the outer parlour before the 

 cloister was enlarged on the north. 



> Add. MS. 32467, f. 213. 



' Sparke, Scriptoret, S6. 



447 



