button to main menu  Gents Mag 1849 part 2 p.587

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Gentleman's Magazine 1849 part 2 p.587
covered on the outside with lead. Some years since it narrowly escaped being altogether concealed from view; as a wealthy individual, desirous to render the church snugger, and more in accordance with modern ideas of comfort, proposed to shut out this dark-looking roof, by putting up a smooth lathe-and-plaster ceiling at his own expense. The tasteless attempt however was fortunately frustrated by the zealous care of one of the churchwardens, to whom the antique appearance and keeping of the sacred edifice was an object of reverential regard.
In the church is kept, it cannot be said preserved, chained to a seat underneath the reading-pew, a copy of Erasmus's "Paraphrase on the New Testament," which Cranmer caused to be introduced into all the parish churches in England, and which book was one of the first of those successive publications by whose aid he restored and built up the Reformed faith of his country. There is also a copy of Jewels' "Defence of the Apologie of the Church of England," which in Queen Elizabeth's reign was likewise ordered to be similary placed. These books are in bad condition, as some of the leaves have been loosened, the title pages of both partly torn out, and deprived of their clasps and bindings; they are tossed together upon a seat, as things altogether disregarded and abandoned to the pleasure of every spoiler. Through similar want of care the Coverdale Bible, printed in 1535, a copy of which was in Henry the Eighth's reign, A.D. 1538, enjoined by Cromwell, the King's Vicar-general, to be deposited in the choir or chancel of all the Reformed churches in England, for every one to read at his leisure, has been removed and lost.
The chest for alms, which at one time was so general an article of church furniture, fixed on a stone or pillar in some convenient situation at the west end of the nave, near the entrance, is now likewise thrown by in the vestry.
Pity it is, that those to whom the church and its appendages are by the law yearly entrusted should so little appreciate these old and faithful remembrances of the pious anxiety of the Fathers of our Reformation, that -
"The book of life, and the principles which guided them in reforming the church, should be largely and publicly distributed, for the use and enlightenment of the people in times of great ignorance of true religious information, in order that those who, by reason of their poverty or other causes, were not able to purchase such books themselves, should have the Word of God, made free of access to them in their own mother tongue."
Time was, after the first placing of such books in churches, that multitudes, "long thirsty for the Word, rushed to the waters of life and drank freely;" and what a sight, full of the deepest interest and reflection, it must have been to see those hallowed structures - our parish churches - which in the elder days were always kept open, crowded with the laity, to whom the Bible had hitherto been as a sealed volume, flocking in - not alone at the stated hours of public prayers, but at other times, to read or hear read, by some one of themselves more literate than his fellows, that divine word which maketh wise unto salvation. How sublime a subject for the utmost reach of the artist's creative skill.
The pride of our church is, or rather was, the gorgeous east window, which yet retains abundant though sorely mutilated remains of the stained glass with which it was superbly filled. It is said that this interesting specimen of ancient decoration formerly belonged to the abbey of Saint Mary in Furness, and that after the destruction of that celebrated institution in A.D. 1537 it was purchased by the parishioners of Windermere, and removed hither. In 1775, when Mr West wrote, this noble window was much more perfect, as the following description, taken from his "Antiquities of Furness," will testify:-
"The east window of the church of Furness Abbey has been noble; some of the painted glass that once adorned it is preserved in a window in Windermere church. The window in that church consists of seven compartments, or partitions. In the third, fourth, and fifth are depicted in full proportion the Crucifixion, with the Virgin Mary on the right, and the beloved disciple St. John the Evangelist on the left side of the cross. Angels are expressed receiving the sacred blood from the five precious wounds. Below the cross are a group of monks in the proper habits, with the abbot in a vestment. Their names are written on labels issuing from their mouths. The abbot's name is defaced, which would have given a date to the
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