Gents Mag 1849 part 1 p.254

Gents Mag 1849 part 1 p.254




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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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