A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



ages.^ As many as twenty-four have been brought to light in those of Norfolk 

 alone, and doubtless others still remain beneath the whitewash with which 

 the walls of the churches in the county are thickly coated. 



In this same church, adjoining the picture of St. Christopher, was a 

 large painting of St. George overcoming the Dragon. The subject repre- 

 sented the well-known legend of the rescue by the saint of the daughter of 

 the king of Selene in Lybia from a dragon which ravaged the country round, 

 living upon the sheep offered to it by the inhabitants, who, when all these 

 had been consumed, were compelled to give their children to the monster, the 

 king himself at last being constrained to sacrifice his daughter. St. George, 

 like some knight-errant, appears upon the scene, and fights with and wounds 

 the dragon, which he binds with the princess's girdle. It is then led by the 

 princess, St. George accompanying her, into the neighbouring city, whose 

 inhabitants, at the sight of such a miracle, all become Christians, and after- 

 wards the dragon is slain. The following sentences describe this picture and 

 are quoted from an account of it as it appeared when still fresh from the 

 whitewash, which has now covered it again :' ' The saint is mounted on a 

 white steed, his head is encircled with a coronet of eastern design, in the 

 forefront of which is the red cross; his armour, which is of the period of 

 Henry the Fifth, .... consists of ay«/>o// with a red cross on the breast; 

 beneath this appears the haubergeon or mail shirt ; his arms were encased in 

 steel, as also his legs ; with a sword raised above his head the saint is dealing 

 a final blow at the dragon, which must have formed a conspicuous feature ; 

 but the greater part of the monster, together with the legs of the champion, 

 disappeared in the process of development (in cleaning the painting). The 

 housings of the horse are of a dull red colour with ornaments in yellow. 

 . . . .' The ground for this picture had been prepared with a thin coating 

 of whitening on the plastering of the wall. It is possible that it was sub- 

 sequent in date, but not very much so, to the St. Christopher, which, as noted 

 previously, was executed on the bare roughcast. 



Although this painting was destroyed with the rest in Witton Church 

 some years ago, another of the same subject and of the fifteenth century was 

 discovered in the year 1862, and is still to be seen on the west wall of the 

 north aisle of St. Gregory's church in Norwich. Although injured by 

 restoration it is as good an example of fifteenth-century work as can be 

 found within the limits of the county. A few facts from a notice of the 

 painting contributed to the Archc^ological J ournal mzy be quoted here.' The 

 writer of the notice says, ' The figures of the horse and of St. George .... 

 are as large as life .... the Dragon is on the ground, a portion of the 

 spear appears within its open jaws, but the weapon seems to have been 

 broken, for between the hind legs of the horse and the tail of the dragon is 

 seen the broken spear, leading to the conclusion that St. George has failed in 



1 The opening lines of the hymn just referred to show the reason why. They are as follows : — 

 ' Christophori sancti speciem quicumque tuetur 

 Illo namque die nuUo languore tenetur.' 

 In fact the sight of the image of the saint was practically a charm against illness, and his painted effigy was in 

 consequence placed in a conspicuous position in the churches, usually (though not always) at the western end 

 of the north wall opposite the principal entrance, so as to be in full view of all as they entered. 

 5 Account of the paintings in Witton church : Norf. Arch. {1864), vi. 42, et seq. 

 ^Arch. Jour. (i86z), xix. 81. 



