Blythburgh church window glass.  Abstract of newspaper articles by Hamlet Watling, reproduced in Alan Mackley ed. The Restoration of Blythburgh church 1881-1906, Suffolk Records Society vol. 60 (2017).

The Suffolk Chronicle.  Articles by Hamlet Watling.  13 and 20 November 1875.

‘The Fine Arts Long Ago.’

PAINTINGS ON GLASS IN SUFFOLK CHURCH WINDOWS. – BLYTHBOROUGH: No. 3.

            To enter upon the history of this fabric would be entirely out of place here; but the antiquity of it is unquestionably very great.  How far it may extend anterior to the internment of King Anna and his son Firminus, who fell at the battle of Blythborough or Bulcamp, in 654, has never been handed down to us.  The present beautiful Perpendicular pile in its palmy days must have almost defied description.  The multiplicity of its enrichments, bestowed upon it by its numerous donors, is a fact almost without a parallel in the records of ecclesiastical benevolence, exhibiting itself in the multiplicity of shields with arms scattered throughout the roof and windows.  Amongst the most perfect I noticed were those of Hopton, Swillington, Crane, Rosse, Spencer, Tiptoft, Groswell, Wingfield, Barrington, Bacon, Kerdiston, Ufford, Meckilfield, Argentine, Cailey, Barett, and Scroop.  A great many others made their disappearance during the visitation of that furious iconoclast Francis Jessop, the faithful agent of Dowsing, who visited the fabric on the 9^th April, 1644.  The windows and roof appear to have suffered most from his despoiling hands.  How the 18 beautiful figures, carved in chestnut wood, escaped his notice, is a matter of wonder.  The bench ends, also, in the north aisle, representing the seven deadly sins, of which Sloth and Gluttony are as little injured as their antitypes in the world.  The arca domini, lectern, and jack o’ th’ clock also still remain, and are fine specimens of church furniture of the days that are gone.  At the present day, which has witnessed the restoration of so many fine churches throughput the kingdom, the condition of Blythborough is a wretched scandal.  One of the finest fabrics in Suffolk, and connected with a place of so much historic note, and surrounded by fair and beautiful estates, stripped of its architectural ornaments, and reduced to a wretched state of squalor.  The interior filled with rickety pews of the meanest wood.  The windows blocked up with bricks and mortar, and besmeared with lime wash.  The floor loose and unsafe to tread upon, and the whole throughout well besmeared with whitewash.  Such was the condition of the place when I visited it some years hence.  I shall now proceed with the description of the glass that is still extant in the upper tracery of the windows.

            The large subjects which filled the days [bays?] have long since disappeared.  These were surmounted by the three arms of donors on shields, supported by three angels of exquisite work.  In a window in the Hopton chantry, the gift of Sir Roger Swillington, are three bishops, the only ones left, that presided over the see at Dunwich; the others are gone.  The most perfect are those of St. Felix, the first bishop of Dunwich; Boniface and Alsin.  They are demi-figures.  The former has a superbly decorated mitre upon his head with foliage and jewels.  In his left hand he holds a crosier, and a book in the right.  The collar of the chasuble is richly ornamented, and beneath is written in old English St. Felix.  His countenance is very youthful, and his snow white chasuble, studded with ornamental flowering, gives him a saintly appearance.  I need add that St. Felix was the first Christian missionary in East Anglia; invited over by the good King Sigebert, he landed at Felixstowe in 630.  The episcopal office, however, was not conferred upon him till some years afterwards when the truths and blessings he promulgated were extending themselves by his zeal and activity throughout the land.  It is evident through the co-operation of the good King Sigebert and himself that Christianity was about to be permanently established, and that churches and monasteries were endowed, and there is much appearance of probability that this infant establishment fixed at Dunwich formed the germ whence the University of Cambridge afterwards sprouted.  Felix died on the 8^th of March, 647, and was interred in his own church art Dunwich.  We have good authority, however, to suppose that his remains were removed, through the encroachments of the ocean, to Soham and interred in his own abbey.  But in King Canute’s reign they were again removed to the abbey at Ramsey, and there enshrined with splendour and his name canonised as the first saint of East Anglia. The second one on the list of survivors is Boniface, or Bosa, third bishop in succession.  This prelate holds in his left hand a crozier, and a book open is held in his right.  The mitre upon his head is beautifully ornamented.  His consecration took place in 669.  Bede informs us that when oppressed by old age and infirmities he divided his diocese into two parts, retaining that of Dunwich, which was to embrace Suffolk; the other see being at North Elmham in Norfolk, which was to extend over that county.  The other that is imperfectly left is that of Alsin or Ælfun, buried at Dunwich, and the eighth in succession, the others have all disappeared – Acca or Etta, Astwolph, Edferth, Cuthwin, Alberth, Eglaf, Heardred, Tidferth, Weremund and Loybred.  These, if left perfect, would have formed a truly interesting and valuable series, connected as they are with the renowned ‘splendid city’ of Dunwich.  In the next window is glowing in rich tints the remnant of a subject, the gift of Robert Pinne, in 1457, who ordered his executors to ‘glaze a window on the north side of the church next the window of St. John Baptist, and paint the same with the history of St. Anthony.’  This is also in the Hopton chantry.  I have been enabled to make but two copies from the filth and dirt that encrust them.  The first represents the saint with a rugged staff in his right hand, with the head of one of the poor saint’s cruel persecutors upon it.  The beard is pointed and a turban covers the head, and a defiant scowl rests upon the countenance, whilst the saint’s wears a smile.  A long robe of purple covers him, and the hood is drawn tight over the head so that no hair is visible.  Under his left arm he holds a closed book.  The back ground is floriated.  The other represents the saint holding up with his left hand the cross Tau, his usual emblem.  He is also represented amongst the carved figures in the Hopton Chantry [so still there in 1875?], which has been mistaken for a square.  As St. Anthony and his emblems are truly interesting, I will give the reader a laconic sketch of the saint’s life.  The cross Tau crux ansata, key of the Nile, or emblem of life, as it is indifferently denominated, is frequently borne in the hands of Egyptian divinities, both male and female, by a ring attached to the transverse member.  This sacred symbol was also wrought in various substances and worn as a necklace pendant, by the living subject of the Pharaohs, and also as an amulet on the breasts of their mummied corpses.  The ladies in the Melford secular glass have the same ornament round their necks, which will be noticed hereafter.  The Tau was aslo adopted by the Egyptians, Assyrians, Jews, Druids, Gnostics, and Knight Templars; the origin is not precisely known, but it is a curious fact the early Christians of Egypt adopted it in lieu of the cross, which was afterwards substituted for it.  It is very probable that the saintly emblem and sacred crux are one and the same, and that its association with the saint was to point out that he was a native of the land of the Nile, he having been born at Coma, near Heraclea, A.D. 251.  The relics of the saint were brought to Europe by the pious Joceline, and were efficacious as a cure against St. Anthony’s fire and erysipelas.

            I am sorry to say that the rest of the window below has been entirely destroyed.  The saint there was probably represented with his other emblem – the ‘pig,’ with a bell hung about its neck, and a staff in his hand, &c.  As I shall intrude too much upon space, in my next I will conclude this interesting series.

            Guildhall, Stonham.                                                    H. WATLING.

‘The Fine Arts Long Ago.’

ANCIENT PAINTINGS ON GLASS IN SUFFOLK CHURCH WINDOWS. No. 4. – BLYTHBOROUGH (continued).

            The next window which claims attention is that of St. John Baptist, as narrated in the will of Robert Pinne in 1457.  Of this window only one perfect figure was left to remind us that it once existed.  The remainder of the window is filled up with bricks and mortar as a substitute for the remainder of the saint’s history.  The copy which is now before me exhibits the saint holding with both his hands a closed book, on the cover of which is the Agnes Dei.  The vest is purple, and his head is surrounded with an ornamental nimbus of gold; the undergarment of camel’s hair (as mentioned by St. Matthew) fastened by a leathern girdle about his loins.  He stands with his feet upon a pavement of rich work.  The background and canopy under which he stands are very rich in design.  In a window south of the Hopton Chantry is a perfect representation of St. Andrew: in his right hand he holds the usual emblem, the cross soltire, and in his left a closed book.  His head is surrounded by a nimbus, and over his shoulders is a vest of purple, whilst the undergarment is pure white studied with cinquefoil flowers of gold.  The next figure to the last mentioned is that of St. Abercius, B.C., who destroyed the statue of Apollo.  He is holding in his left hand the crosier brought to him by an angel from heaven; it is exquisitely wrought in foliated work and covered with pearls and gems.  O his head is a superbly worked mitre of the same character.  he is standing beneath a canopy of chaste work.  Over the white alb is a vest of green.  This beautiful figure undoubtedly escaped the hands of the despoiler as well as the purloiner by being thickly encrusted with dirt and whitewash, which had to be removed before a copy could be made.  Next in succession is the effigy of St. Barthomelew.  The canopy of this figure is entirely destroyed, but the figure is in a perfect state.  He is represented with a large flaying knife in his right hand, and under his left arm a book of the gospels.  He is clad in a purple vest, with white undergarment.  In the tracery above this figure is St. Pancras or Pancratius, a youth with a stone held on his right arm and a palm branch in the left, the emblem of martyrdom.  He was a Roman boy of noble family, who was martyred under Diocletian at the age of 14, and was thus regarded as the patron saint of children.  St. Augustin dedicated his first church to this infant martyr after his arrival in England.  The next figure which I shall notice is that of St. Blase, bishop martyr of the fourth century.  This exquisite figure is holding in his left hand a wool comb, and in the other a crosier of exquisite design.  Over the white tunicle and alb is a chasuble of crimson.  On his head is a mitre richly set with pearls and gems, and surrounded with a nimbus of gold.

            In the centre widow of the south aisle is a very perfect representation of St. Etheldreda, daughter of King Anna, who was slain at the battle of Baldcamp [sic] or Blythborough, as before narrated.  This saint claims particular attention, seeing she was the foundress of Ely Cathedral.  A few remarks, therefore, will be interesting to the reader.  Her father was the son of Eni, who had a brother named Redwold, the Bretwalda.   Her pious parent erected a stately monastery at Burgh Castle, near Great Yarmouth, then called Cnobhersburg, (i.e., Cnober’s town).  Anna had four daughters, whose pure and holy lives gained for them an undying renown, viz., Ethelberga, abbess of Brie in France; St. Withburga, the foundress of the nunnery of East Dereham, in Norfolk; and St. Etheldreda, the subject of our inquiry, the wife of Egrid, King of Northumbria.  These ladies had a uterine sister, Setird, also a saint, and abbess of Brie.  Etheldreda was born at Exning, on the western boarders [sic] of Suffolk, circa 630.  In the year 660 she espoused Egfrid of Northumbria, and twelve years i.e., in 672, she severed herself from her royal partner, and entered on a pure religious life in the Abbey of Coluai or Coldingham, in Berkshire.  Egfrid regretted the loss of so beloved a wife and sought her, without effect, as she fled to Ely, and there founded a religious house over which she presided as abbess.  A curious legend is attached to her whilst on the road from the north.  She lay down to sleep, planted her staff in the earth, and when she woke she found it had grown into a vigorous tree.  This incidence may be seen on the columns of Ely Cathedral.  She is also represented sometimes holding a budding staff.  This virgin Queen died of a swelling on the neck June 23, A.D. 679.  It is reported by her historians that this disorder greatly delighted her, as she said that when a child she bore there the needless weight of jewels, and which she attributed to the divine goodness.  She was interred in a wooden coffin, but her sister Sexberga sixteen years after had her exhumed, and the linen cloth which enveloped the body was found perfect and clean, and by the touch of which the devils were expelled and divers diseases cured.  In the process of time her name got corrupted to Audrey and Audry, and from this sprang the word ‘Tawdry’ as applied to showy articles of small value.  Ely Cathedral, with St. Peter, is dedicated to her, and six churches in England.  Much more might be mentioned of her, but space will not allow it.  In the same window is the representation of St. Helen, Empress, A.D. 328, holding on her left arm a large cross and crowned.  Next to her is St. Mary Magdalene, penitent, standing covered, with her hair flowing to the ground.  The next perfect figure is St. Gabriel, archangel, clad in armour with sceptre and shield, and diapered back ground of purple.  In another window is St. Jude, or Thaddeus, apostle.  On his left arm he supports a ship without sails.  The vest is pure white, over a garment of rose pink, and the head surrounded with a nimbus.  The next figure delineated is that of St. Pantœnus, father of the church, A.D. 215, in the act of delivering an address or lecture.  On his head is a tight cap of crimson, his vest white, over a dress of rose tint.

            In the west window, north aisle, was painted in glowing colours most of the kings of East Anglia, but now entirely stripped of its glass and filled up with bricks and cement.  The only fragment that has been saved to remind us of this assertion is a copy taken many years since by an antiquary in the neighbourhood.  It is no other than the Mercian King Offa, who is said to have been the immediate predecessor of King Edmund.  The story goes that Offa, having no issue, resolved to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to supplicate the blessing of an heir, and on his way thither paid a visit to his kinsman Alkmund, King of Saxony, whose Queen, Siware, had in the year 841 given birth to a boy, who in after time became renowned as St. Edmund.  Offa on his road homeward was seized with a mortal illness, but before his death nominated young Edmund as his successor to the throne of East Anglia.  He is here represented crowned with a Saxon crown and a sceptre in his right hand.  A tippet of ermine covers his shoulders; from this descends a vest of crimson, the under garment being of purple, bordered at the base with fur. He stands upon a pavement of a diapered and trellised patters, and beneath is inscribed Offa, rex.  The canopy is also rich in floriated work on a purple background.

            Having thus described as far as I am able a few only of the sainted figures in glass in this once truly sublime fabric, I cannot quit it, without a sad feeling of regret that no care whatever has been bestowed to save them from utter ruin, and that from time to time they have disappeared without that laudable care in preserving them from destruction which our benevolent forefathers consecrated with great pains to the honour of God and His church.

            The Gipping glass will form the subject of No.5.

            Guildhall, Stonham.                                                    H.WATLING.