By the Rev. Canon Jackson, F.8.A. 



49 



Take the art of miniature painting. We have in our Public Libraries 

 many most beautiful volumes, the handiwork of these men, illus- 

 trated by exquisitely fine paintings, and arabesque borderwork. 

 From miniature painting they passed to embellishment on a larger 

 scale. At the monastery at Wearmouth in Durham, the walls of 

 their church, for two hundred feet long, were covered with frescoes 

 from the history of the Old and New Testament. The names of 

 these ecclesiastical artists have for the most part perished. A 

 few survive : one, in itself a host — Fra Angelico. 



The next step was to staining of glass. This also they carried to 

 great perfection. They used some process not fully known to us, 

 and there are some colours which our artists have never been able 

 to arrive at. With all our modern efforts we are still a long way 

 behind the old glass. 



The principal workers in silver and gold in the Middle Ages, 

 especially on the Continent, were monks. Of their works such as 

 shrines, censers, books bound in gold, silver and ivory, pastoral 

 staves, crosiers, diptychs, chandeliers, crucifixes, &c, many specimens 

 remain to bear witness to the degree of elegance and perfection to 

 which they carried their labours in this way. It is particularly on 

 record that a splendid shrine at the great Abbey of St. Albans, 

 which received the bones of their patron-saint, was the work of an 

 English monk, whose name was Anketill. 



We must not omit another art, the most impressive and touching 

 of all, which expresses our emotion and sways our feelings — that 

 art of which Shakespeare says : — 



" The poet 



Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods, 

 Since nought so stockish, hard, and full of rage, 

 But Music for the time doth change his nature." 



" For the time " says Shakespeare : because the effect is often only 

 transient, but it is more durable and impressive in sacred music. Now 

 no where in the world was this more zealously cultivated than in the 

 monasteries. Their very system required it : for such was the 

 number and frequency of their Services, that they were at practise 

 almost incessantly. Continual chanting made it a necessary duty 



VOL. XXI. — NO, LXI. E 



