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Gentleman's Magazine 1849 part 1 p.254
and Jackson, which were left undisturbed - to the same side
of the cemetery where the bones from the charnel vault had
been interred, and there covered deeply with fresh mould. In
the progress of these cuttings, some old coins of silver, so
worn as not to be deciphered, and a leaden coin of Stephen's
reign, depositied in Crosthwaite's Museum, were discoverd
near the west end of the nave. Numbers of small encaustic
tiles about six inches square, and nearly an inch thick, of
a deep red brick colour, inlaid with figures of yellowish
white, and evidently once forming a decorative pavement,
were also exhumed, at the east end of the north aisle of the
chancel. When hollowing out that part of the ground at the
east end of the south aisle of the chancel, regard was
particularly bestowed upon it, under the impression that as
the brasses commemorative of Sir John Ratcliffe and his lady
rested on their tomb in that portion of the church, and
where also the more ancient marble effigies of some of the
earlier Derwentwaters had reposed before their removal,
their burial vault, or at least some of their coffins might
be found. However, after a careful sifting of the ground to
the depth of four feet, nothing was brought to light beyond
a quantity of bones, which were also consigned to the
churchyard, and the small piscina of the chantry in the
south wall, now concealed under a seat. The dilapidated
porch and time-worn oaken doors were taken down, and the
latter burned. The heads of Saint Anthony and Mary Magdalen,
and the Ratcliffe arms in stained glass, the only remnants
left of the ancient fenestral decoration, were likewise
carefully displaced.
A correct drawing of the large east window was made, which
threreupon, together with a considerable portion of the
adjoining wall, was entirely broken away previous to its
reconstruction. The roofs of the nave, chancel, and aisles
were stripped off, and the piers, arches, walls, and
mullions of the windows denuded of their plaster and
whitewash.
Here it may be mentioned, that on the occasion of putting up
in 1839 on the flank wall of the north aisle of the chancel,
between the first and second wiindows from the east end, the
white marble mural tablet to the memory of Lieut.-Gen.
Peachey, of Derwent Island, a painting on an inner coat of
plaster, of a circular form, and aboout eighteen inches in
diameter, was revealed underneath the space now occupied by
that obituary memorial. It was composed of a series of rings
or concentric circles, each being about an inch broad; the
outer one was coloured black, the second red, and the third
yellow; the centre was white, and painted thereon in black
letters and figures of the old character, were on different
lines the words "and," "my," "thy," with, on a line below,
the numerals "191," which were all that were legible.
Investigation has not elicited anything satisfactory
relative to the purport of this inscription, though it has
been assumed to have reference to the era of the building of
the Norman church; but a conjecture nearer to its true
intention may be hazarded, that it had regard not to the
foundation, but was a portion of one of those texts of
scripture, which in Edward the Sixth's time were by the 82nd
canon ordered to be painted upon the walls of churches.
A low semi-circular arched doorway, supposed to have been
used in Roman Catholic times as an entrance through which
penitents were admitted, and which was supposed to have been
walled up at the Reformation, was under the same process of
denudation exposed to view near the west end of the flank
wall of the north aisle of the nave. The was also uncovered
on the stone frame-work on the left-hand of each of the
windows a carved circle about four inches in diameter;
containing a cross within, and which figure was likewise
found on the stone dressings on the left-hand side of each
window on the exterior.
All things being thus prepared, the renaiscence of the whole
structure commenced, and continued in a style designed to
harmonise in wall and window, roof and pillar, glass and
carvings, as nearly as possible, consistent with
arrangements of a reformed place of worship, to the style of
the latter end of the fifteenth or beginning of the
sixteenth century, the era when the present edifice is
supposed to have been erected.
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