148 



Bishop's Cannings. 



on the right hand of the person occupying the seat) and a desk in I 

 front of the seat, lower than the back or sido. In the absence of 

 accurate drawings we cannot help thinking that the seat is later than 

 the painted panel to which it is attached. The inscriptions are in 

 letters of the 15th century. Now, even supposing the whole to be 

 of the same date, there can be little or no question that this seat is 

 not a confessional : first, because there is no arrangement for whis- 

 pering or secrecy : secondly, because the manus meditationis is quite 

 unsuitable to the case of either penitent or confessor : thirdly, be- 

 cause everything people do not understand is, as a matter of course, 

 attributed to confessionals. Some have thought the back to be a 

 panel of the rood, or some other screen. But the inscription seems 

 also quite inappropriate in such a position, or for any use in con- 

 nection with the Divine offices. Whether, however, the unpainted 

 seat, and deskwork be of the same date or not, it is certain that 

 the whole stall is of ante-reformation date. We subjoin an ingeni- 

 ous theory of a valued correspondent on the use of this seat. 



"For myself, (he says) I conjecture that this so called Confes- 

 sional chair is a valuable, and perhaps unique, example of the 

 ancient 'Carrel,' 1 or stall, usually fixed in the cloister of monastic 

 buildings, and which probably occurred as frequently in connexion 

 with large parochial churches, such as Bishop's Cannings, in imme- 

 diate dependance on the Cathedral. These carrels were used by 

 the monks or clergy for daily private study and meditation : hence 

 the peculiar propriety and beauty in such a position of the manus 

 meditationis. The following account of the carrel is transcribed 

 from the well known "Rites of Durham Abbey." [Surtees Society's 

 edition, pp. 70, 71.] 'In the north side of the cloister, from the 

 corner against the church door to the corner over against the Dor- 

 ter (Dormitory) door, was all fynely glased from the night to the 

 sole within a litle of the ground into the cloister garth. And in 

 every window iij. pews or carrells, where every one of the old 

 monks had his carrell, severall by himselfe, that, when they had 

 dyned, they dyd resorte to that place of cloister, and there studyed 

 upon there books, every one in his carrell, all the afternonne unto 



1 Of course from " quarreo" a square box, stall, inclosure, pewe, or pen, 



