FLITT HUNDRED 



LUTON 



appear on the east side of the central tower in St. 

 Albans Abbey Church; the sixth shield is that of 

 St. Edward the Confessor, Azure a cross paty between 

 five martlets or. Above these shields is the motto 

 Valks habundabunt, which tradition assigns to Abbot 

 Wheathampstead. 



To the west of the sedilia is the small chantry 

 chapel of Richard Barnard, vicar in 1477-9Z ; its 

 floor is some 2 1 in. below that of the chancel, which 

 has been raised in modern times. Its north face is 

 divided into three bays with hanging four-centred 

 arches springing from angle shafts and pendants ; the 

 eastern pendant is octagonal in plan, and its top 

 member is battlemented ; the western one is broken 

 off and now lies on the top of the chantry. The 

 spandrels of the arches are carved with the rebus of 

 Barnard, a bear and a hand holding a box of oint- 

 ment {nard). The chantry is entered from the west 

 by a small four-centred doorway, and in the south 

 wall is a piscina with a small recess over it, the latter 

 possibly for a lamp ; to the west of these is a 

 small window to light the altar, of two lights with 

 cinquefoiled four-centred arches under a square head ; 

 the roof is vaulted in stone, the ribs springing on the 

 wall side from corbels carved as winged angels. 



To the west of the chantry is a small south door- 

 way with a four-centred arch and two hollow-cham- 

 fered orders ; it probably dates from the fifteenth 

 century, but has been renovated in modern times. 

 There are two windows in the south wall of the 

 chancel ; the eastern one, over the sedilia, of four 

 trefoiled lights with simple trefoiled fifteenth-century 



tracery in a two-centred arch ; the other, over the 

 chantry, is of four cinquefoiled lights with tracery of 

 fifteenth-century style, under a four-centred head ; 

 it has been partly renewed. 



The arch opening from the chancel to the Hoo 

 Chapel has plain splayed jambs and a moulded two- 

 centred arch dying on to the splay without a break ; 

 it is apparently of fifteenth-century date. 



In the north wall of the chancel is a fifteenth-cen- 

 tury window of three cinquefoiled lights with tracery, 

 now blocked by the upper story of the vestry, and 

 filled in on the chancel side with mosaic. 



Below and to the west of this is an early fourteenth- 

 century tomb recess, with a well moulded ogee arch 

 with crockets and a finial ; its position suggests that 

 it may have been used for the Easter sepulchre. It 

 seems to have been brought to its present place from 

 a site farther to the west, as it partly blocks a later 

 four-centred doorway to the west of it, which formerly 

 gave access to the vestry. This alteration doubtless 

 took place when the Wenlock Chapel was built, and a 

 new approach from chancel to vestry was provided 

 by a doorway at the south-east angle of the chapel, 

 leading to the south-west doorway of the vestry, 

 which up to this time had been external. The 

 double archway to the Wenlock Chapel is a lofty 

 opening with panelled responds, at the angles of which 

 are pairs of slender engaged shafts with moulded 

 bases, bands, and capitals ; the main arch is four- 

 centred and has a panelled sofiit, like the jambs, with 

 moulded ribs springing firom the angle shafts. The 

 opening is divided by a central pier of the same 

 detail as the responds, with solid panelling ending in 

 cresting a little above the springing of the arches, 

 while from the pier spring arched ribs, dividing the 

 inclosing arch into two sub-arches, the central 

 spandrel being filled with pierced tracery. Above 

 the main arch runs a horizontal cornice, with panelled 

 spandrels beneath it framing the arch, in which are 

 shields with a cheveron between three crosslets ; these 

 also occur in the sofiit of the main arch at the 

 springing. 



The central ornament of the cornice is a helm 

 with mantling and torse, the shield which it sur- 

 mounted having lately fallen from its place, and on 

 either side encircled by garters are the arms of Wen- 

 lock. In the smaller carved bosses on the cornice the 

 moors' heads are repeated. 



The stairs to the rood-loft pass through the thick- 

 ness of the wall to the west of the archway, the lowest 

 step being some distance above the floor of the chapel ; 

 the upper doorway is close up against the chancel 

 arch. 



The chancel roof is modern and of low pitch, but 

 the stone corbels which carry it aie old and take the 

 form of rather coarse heads surmounted by moulded 

 abaci. 



The vestry to the north of the chancel has a ribbed 

 stone vault of fourteenth-century date springing from 

 engaged wall shafts with moulded bell capitals, and 

 from a larger central shaft with a moulded capital of 

 less depth than the others, looking as though it had 

 been reduced from the original size at some later 

 date ; there is no shaft in the south-west corner of 

 the vestry, the vaulting springing from a corbel above 

 the rear arch of the doorway, carved with a human 

 face and appearing to be of later date. The three 

 windows to the vestry (two in the east wall and one 



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