THE AISLE NOW REBUILT.

21

long used as a charnel-house, was a fine specimen of Decorated architecture at its best. When Dr. Ingram issued his Memorials (1837) it was still divided from the nave by the original massive wall pierced by three acutely pointed arches of different sizes. On opposite sides the corbel-heads of King Edward III and his queen Philippa remained, having once, Dr. Ingram suggests, supported the luminaries of SS. Peter and Paul. The piscina and a niche for a small figure of a saint existed on the south side near the place where the altar once stood. After 1674 the east window, an elaborate specimen of pure Decorated tracery, was somewhat obstructed by a small mortuary chapel built by John West, Esq., lord of the manor of Hampton Poyle'. In Mackenzie's print (1835) of the church, looking westward, this chapel has a Gothic appearance. Against the west window of Docklinton's aisle, in the companion print looking eastward, is a small classical addition, apparently a porch, which Dr. Ingram calls 'a modern excrescence,' but which looks like good work of Charles II's time. The south wall of the aisle had three windows, and a west and east window. It has in the present century been lengthened in both directions, and the additions at both ends swept away, but the tracery of the east window has been kept as an ornamental division between the aisle and its continuation, after the fashion of the beautiful chapels at Coutances. The hood-moulding of one window has the original finials. The chamber above was lit by six square-headed double-light Perpendicular windows, and was reached by a newel staircase at the south-west external corner. What Dr. Ingram calls the disgraceful termination' of this staircase, a double-gabled erection with a sundial on its southern face, may have been a later addition for the storage of books and papers. The aisle had a battlemented parapet. Round the churchyard used to be a stone wall with a substantial gateway at the west, and another towards the south-east. A glance at any old picture of this, reputed the most ancient, as certainly it was the most

1 On Oct. 9, 1674, his daughter Anne died in St. Aldate's parish, and was buried in the churchyard on the south side close under the wall of the chancell.' A 'little chappell' was in the same month 'built over her by the fond father,' and a monument placed to 'the truly virtuous Mrs. Ann West, the youngest and dutiful Daughter of the above.' He, his wife Mary Kirke, and another daughter were laid there. He was described as 6 a Benefactor to the Church and the Poor of the Parish.' Mr. West, who was one of Charles II's Gentlemen Pensioners, died Jan. 8, 169%. Anne's shield was 'Ermine, a bend indented sable,' impaling her mother, viz. 'parted per fess or and gules a lozeng counterchanged of the feild on a canton azure a lion couchant or collared and chained argent holding a cutlas blade in his two pawes.' Wood, ii. 295. The present Master tells me that he remembers a beautiful little chapel to the east of the aisle.

22

THE NAME 'SAINT ALDATE.'

lovely of Oxford parish churches1, and a second glance at the present uninteresting edifice, must disenchant any one with the well-meant blundering of the 'restoration' era of a generation back. If the spires of Oxford, which is incredible, are still 'dreaming,' that of St. Aldate's is an architectural somnium aegrum.

In the churchwardens' accounts of 26 Hen. VIII, 20s. appears as received for 'a tenement next ye church style now called ye church howse.' It adjoined a property of the prioress of Studley 2.

3

Speed says that The old-fashioned it is of antiquity

Besides the crypt there still remains a pure Norman arcading inside the church. 'The piety of the Norman Castellans,' writes Mr. Green, ' rebuilt nearly all the parish churches of the city.' this church was founded, or restored' in 1004. guide-books content themselves with saying that beyond the reach of satisfactory investigation,' and that it was once wooden. Mr. Parker dismisses as an idle tale the fabulous connexion with the probably mythical British saint Eldad, through whose means Hengist was defeated, and who caused the corpses of the 460 British barons and consuls, murdered on Salisbury plain, to be buried in a cimitery near adjoyning.' This saint is described by Leland as Bishop of Gloucester about A.D. 450. There is at present a St. Aldate's Church in Gloucester, mentioned first in any extant writing c. 1291. Like the one in Oxford, it is situated just inside an ancient gate of the city, on the left hand; and Mr. Parker conjectures that in both cases Aldate is really Aldgate, i. e. Old Gate, the saint's name to whom the church is dedicated having slipped out, just as St. Martin's at Quatervois is commonly called Carfax Church. The Normans, he suggests, took Aldgate, softened to Aldate, to be the name of a saint. Early in the twelfth century we find mention of 'Ecclesia S. Aldae.' Afterwards the name appears as S. Aldatus or Aldathus. The churchwardens' accounts, temp. Henry VIII, speak of 'ye feast of S. Aldate,' but this need not mean more than the parish feast. Wood says, "This church hath bin anciently and com

6

1 A very pleasing water-colour by the younger Prout of Docklinton's aisle and the school' overhead has lately been presented to the College by Mr. Alfred Thomas Barton, M.A., Vicegerent and Senior Tutor.

2 Wood MS. D. 2, fol. 67. The house (demolished in 1831) at the southeastern extremity of Pembroke Street was called Church House.

* In an Exeter College computus of 1358, 'iiiid. pro vino dato Radulpho Codeford quando alloquebatur Rectorem de Seynt Holde.' History of Exeter College, Boase, O. H. S., p. xxi. His name was Walter de Leverton, a B.A.

THE DIVIDED PATRONAGE.

23

monly called by the names of St. Ald's, St. Old's, St. Olave's, and now at this day St. Toll's.' The present traditional designation 'St. Old's' is now almost peculiar to University men, the younger townspeople pronouncing Aldate' as it is spelled, as they do also 'Magdalen.' In the 1773 map of Oxford by Longmate, the name is actually given as 'Aldgate,' as it also is in a guide-book which I have of 1827. Noble gives it thus in 1806. In the English version (made about the end of the fifteenth century) of the Oseney Cartulary, a charter of 1226 is signed by Reginald, Chapelyn of ye church of Seynte Oolde of Oxford.'

At the general taxation in 1296, the 'verus valor' of this Church was four marks. In Henry VIII's reign it was valued at £54. In 1773 the real worth was put at £100.

The patronage of this church was given by King Charles I to Pembroke College. How at an earlier date St. Frideswyde's and Abingdon Abbey came to share the advowson is told in a curious story in the Abingdon Chronicle, ii. 174, 1751

Est in civitate Oxeneford monasterium quoddam Sancti Aldadi episcopi venerationi consecratum. Cujus omne beneficium duo clerici ex eadem villa, fratres, Robertus et Gillebertus, cum quodam Nicholao sacerdote aeque dimidiabant. Contigit autem ut, vocante Deo, praedicti duo fratres habitum monachi in hoc Abbendonensi coenobio, hujus abbatis, scilicet Ingulfi, tempore susciperent, et partem ecclesiae quae eis contingebat, cum terra et domibus infra civitatem, hereditario jure sibi pertinentibus, huic ecclesiae dono perpetuo contraderent. Quod videns Nicholaus, alterius partis ecclesiae dominus, abbatem simul et conventum convenit, postulans ut ei partem fratrum praedictorum cum sua, quamdiu viveret, tenere concederent, ita ut censum quem pars accepta exigebat (scilicet xx. solidos) annuatim persolveret. Conditionem etiam talem imposuit : ut cum habitum mutare vellet, non nisi in ecclesia ista mutaret, vel etiam si in illo habitu, quo tunc erat, vitam finiret, pars dimidia ecclesiae supradictae, quae sua erat, cum altera parte in perpetuum isto loco remaneret. Rogante etiam Nicholao, in privilegio Romano ista ecclesia posita est, quod tunc temporis renovabatur. Reversus ergo ad propria, ii. solidos per annos singulos in recognitionem pacti praenotati, extra censum consuetum, dum vixit persolvit.

Defluente vero postmodum aliquanto tempore, Nicholaus idem, subita aegritudine correptus, letali morbo se sensit detineri. Qui salutis propriae recordatus, ad fratres suos Abbendoniam nuntium transmisit, petens ut religionis habitum indueret priusquam deficeret. Qui cum mortem ejus nondum sic imminere putarent, et iccirco aliquantulum venire tardarent, Nicholaus in extasi detentus jacuit. Astantes autem Sanctae Fritheswithae canonici, jamque mortuum putantes, et idem fortasse propter

1 Rev. Joseph Stephenson, ed. in Rolls Series.

lucrum suum desiderantes, nescienti habitum suum supposuerunt, sicque ad suam ecclesiam quadam vi et injuria rapuerunt. Postea tamen revocato spiritu ad se rediens, cum a Wigodo abbate Oseneiae interrogaretur, utrum ei habitus sic assumptus, aut ibi mori, placeret, respondit se amplius in quodam vili specu velle projici quam ibi detineri. Dicebat enim bono suo se ibi non posse sepeliri, ubi sepultus fidem, quam fratribus suis debuit, probaretur mentiri; se potius ad eum locum deferendum, quem seu vivus seu mortuus elegerit inhabitandum. Detentus tamen ab his qui bonis suis inhiabant, praesentis vitae finem [faciens?] inibi interceptus atque sepultus est. Partem vero ecclesiae quam Nicholai diximus esse, et jam jure nostram, negligentibus circa rerum suarum defensione[m] prolatis [praelatis?], usque hodie detinent, et perpetue detinere nituntur; nobis tamen, cum parte jam nostra, personatus dignitate reservata.

I2.

The one moiety was confirmed to Abingdon by Pope Eugenius III in 11461; the other to St. Frideswyde's in 1122 (1132?) by King Henry I2. Ingulf (Prior 1132-58) 'ecclesiam sancti Aldadi dedit sacristae. It was agreed that after the next vacancy there should be alternate presentation. King Stephen, about 1150, directed the Bishop of Lincoln not to put the prior of St. Frideswide's on trial touching the moiety of St. Aldate's and touching St. Edward's, except before himself, 'quia de propria elemosina mea sint.'

The patronage of Docklinton's chantry was at one time distinct from that of the church. For Wood' preserves a charter of 19 Hen. VI (1441) whereby Thomas Goldsmith and Nicholas Norton remit and release to John Fitzallen and Joan his wife, and their heirs and assigns, all their right in a cottage or plot also called the presteshouse in penyfarthinge streete with the advowson of Docklintons chauntry joyneing to S. Aldate's church,' as also in 'Dokelynstons yn' and in Solar hall in St. Edward's parish.

A memorial of the ancient connexion of our House with St. Aldate's Church remains in the fine alabaster tomb and recumbent effigy of John Noble, LL.B., principal of Broadgates, and official of the archdeacon of Berks. It formerly stood in Docklinton's aisle 'under the upper South window,' but has now been placed against the north wall of the chancel, one of the sides being thus conIcealed from view. The tomb is enriched on the south and west sides with a number of canopied niches containing angels who hold

1 Dugdale, i. 107.

"The Rev. S. R. Wigram (Cartulary of St. Frideswide's, O. H. S., p. 10) considers that there are no sufficient grounds to doubt the genuineness and date of this charter. In the cartulary it is No. 5. Mr. Parker thinks Henry I may possibly be an error for Henry II (Early History of Oxford, O. H. S., pp. 292, 293).

3 Abingdon Chronicle, ii. 291.

MS. D. 2, foll. 163, 164.

PARISH CHURCHES USED BY COLLEGIANS.

25

shields, all blank except one. The east side shows a sculptured group, representing an aged couple kneeling-probably Noble's parents, who may have erected the monument—and their family behind.

The figure is bareheaded and vested in the gown and hood of a bachelor of Laws. The sleeves of the gown are long and pointed. The caputium is lined with fur, and there is a line of fur along the outer edge of the cape quite an inch wide. The tonsured head rests on a cushion. Some judicious care is needed for the inscription if it is not to become altogether illegible. It runs thus :—

Magister Joh'es Noble in legib' bacallarius quondã principalis aule latar' portar' et offic' archd’ni Bark': et obiit secudo die Junii Anno dni mill'o ccccc°rrij Cui' ale ppiciet' de' Amě Nuc xpe te petim' miserere qosque veisti Redim' p'ditos noli dãpnare redemptos.

Miseremini mei, miseremini mei, saltem vos amici mei, quia manus dni tetigit me1.

The latter words, from Job (chapter xix. 21), are the prayer of a soul in purgatorial pains. Noble supplicated for D.C.L. May 14, 1510.

In the same way that this aisle was appropriated to Broadgates, the scholars of Balliol once worshipped in a part of St. Mary Magdalen Church, those of Exeter in St. Peter in the East, University College used St. Peter in the East and afterwards St. Mary's, Oriel St. Mary's, Lincoln Allhallows Church, while the parish Church of St. John Baptist is still the Chapel of Merton.

1 Hearne made this inscription out incorrectly (Collections, ed. Doble, iii. 197). He adds: The Founder of Pembroke Chapell, John de Doclington, he was buried I think in ye lower End of ye Chapell in wch on the Floor is a large Marble Stone with a Saxon Inscription not legible.'