A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



naturally into three classes. Of the first little need be said. It consisted in 

 picking out the main features of the woodwork, with colour, leaving the 

 natural oak to form a background, or advancing a step further, by covering 

 the whole roof with a coat of one colour and treating the carved details with 

 others. An example of this latter method may be seen at Knapton, where 

 the whole roof was painted yellow, and the figures of angels and the mould- 

 ings treated in green, red, and white. In the second class a further advance 

 was made, and painted ornament was largely introduced. Of this class the 

 nave roof of Sail offers a fine example. The general ground is white, the 

 main lines a brilliant red, while the soffits of the rafters and the interspaces 

 are richly diapered with the crowned letter M alternating with the sacred 

 monogram I. H.C. in red and black. Angels holding scrolls with passages 

 from the Creed, now almost obliterated, are painted on the cornice. In the 

 third class the rafters have been boarded over and panelled, thus affording a 

 larger space for the painted work. A good and comparatively simple example 

 of such work is to be found in the roof of the chancel of the church now 

 converted to the uses of the Great Hospital in Bishopgate Street at Norwich. 

 The general ground of this roof is a yellow or dull gold colour, the dividing 

 mouldings of the panels and the finely-carved bosses at their intersection 

 being treated in gold and colour, and in each panel is displayed a boldly- 

 designed black eagle. The portion of the building in which this roof occurs 

 is known by the name of the Eagle Ward. Far richer in the character of 

 its ornamentation is the ceiling of a small chapel in the church of East 

 Dereham (PI. viii.), the ground of which is tinted a delicate green. In the 

 centre of each of the panels into which it is divided a green wreath is 

 painted, containing a representation of the Holy Lamb reclining on a book, 

 and issuing from the wreaths is elaborately branching leafage which fills the 

 corners of the panels. The whole composition looks as if it were copied 

 from a page of an illuminated manuscript of late fifteenth-century work. 

 More interesting, and still richer in effect, are those arrangements in which 

 demi-figures of angels are combined with wreaths in the adornment of the 

 panelling. A specimen of this kind may be seen in the roof of the Lady 

 chapel in the church of St. John Maddermarket at Norwich. The general 

 ground was originally white or pale buff, now much darkened by damp and 

 time. The most easterly of the panels each contain an angel rising from 

 clouds and wearing a wonderful turban-like headdress. Each angel holds a 

 scroll on which is inscribed a sentence of the Angelic salutation. The field 

 of the panels on which the angels are painted is powdered with flowers and 

 crowned monograms of the Holy Virgin in black and red. The panels 

 furthest from the east end of the chapel are filled with groups of wreaths 

 containing within them the sacred monogram I. H. C. in red. The effect of 

 the whole, relying as it does on the colours black, red, and grey, is sober and 

 decidedly pleasing.^ 



It is as difficult to ascertain the date of the roof decoration as it is that 

 of the screen paintings. A conjecture may be ventured as to the period of 

 execution of the two following. The paintings upon the now destroyed 

 screen of the Lady chapel in St, John's Maddermarket, the roof of which 

 has just been described, were certainly given by Ralf Segrym, who was 



All the painted roofs mentioned in this account are still in existence. 



548 



