PLATE CXLVII. Interior of the Court-room, Shelbred Priory. THE walls of this room were nearly covered with rude paintings, and monkish devices, appertaining to the birth of Christ, but many of them are nearly obliterated by time, accident, or whitewashing. On a small panel, at the right of the door, are two birds, with a sword in their claws, and bucklers on their legs. On the first large panel, at the left of the door, are three females in the costume of Queen Elizabeth's reign; on the centre panel are the arms of England, and in the next adjoining panel, two cocks; under these three panels may be faintly traced, in Old English characters, the following words :— "GLORIA SIT TIBI DOMINE QUI NATUS ES DE VIRGINE CUM PATRE ET SANCTO SPIRITU IN SEMPITERNA SAECULA. AMEN. "OMNIS SPI LAUDET DEUM." Glory be to thee, O Lord, who wast born of the Virgin; with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever. Amen. Let every creature praise the Lord. The following are pretty nearly the various other figures and devices of this court-room, and the accompanying words, which still remain in tolerable preservation: On the left panel are represented a cock, from whose beak is suspended a label*, with these words, "Christus Natus Est;" and a duck, who silently vociferates, "Quando, Quando?" A magpie ejaculates, "In Hac Nocte;" a bull bellows forth," Ubi, Ubi ?"-and finally, a lamb, the symbol of innocence, closes the train of all these pastoral images, which evidently have relation to the birth of our Saviour, in the manger; and although the pious monk has represented this living scene in simple and homely drawings, we are forcibly reminded of the affecting language of Milton : It was the winter wild, When the heaven-born child, . All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies; Had doft her gaudy trim, With her great master so to sympathise. The lamb utters the following words :-" In Bethlem." Each short speech has this peculiar beauty, that a resemblance to the voice of each animal and bird can be clearly deduced from the sound of the appropriate words. *Translation.-The cock,-" Christ is born." The duck, "When, when?" The magpie,-" This night." The bull, "Where, where ?" The lamb,-" In Bethlehem.” Although the drawing is so much obliterated, we can trace also the picture of some building, perhaps designating that in which was the holy manger. The dimensions of this room are twenty-three feet six inches long, by twenty-one feet six inches wide; height, twenty-two feet six inches; the floor is of red tiles. An annual court is held here. The mere inspection of my drawing of this curious chamber will shew the ingenious, although simple nature of these delineations. PLATE CXLVIII. Interior of the Monk's Vault, Shelbred. CONTIGUOUS to the priory are the ruins of a building called the monk's vault, though, in fact, they are the remains of the refectory, which was thirty-nine feet long, twenty-one feet wide, and about nine feet high. The roof was of groin-work, supported by two octagonal pillars, four feet six inches high, from which the arches sprung. In the south side is seen a large Gothic door-place, and on the north-west are the ruins of a winding staircase, formerly leading to a chamber over this vault, though now roofless, and gone to decay. There is also a continuation of pillars and groins in what is now called the dairy, which is immediately within the door-way, near the farther pillar, and which door-way, now filled up, forms part of the north gable end of the farm-house. This view is copied from a drawing in the Burrell Collection, taken in the year 1773. PLATE CXLIX. South-West View of Steyning Church. See pp. 258 to 262. Also for the Plate, see the Frontispiece to this volume. FINIS. |