decessor, both in the erection and appointments of the church itself, and increase of the establishment, he stated that he had added to the number of the monks, who were about twelve in number, and had formed a congregation of fifty, for whose sustenance he gave the lands in Alveston, long possessed unjustly by certain powerful persons[1], and acquired by him with much labour and cost from William the Conqueror. He dated his gift in the twenty-seventh year of his episcopate, and the first of the occupation of the new monastery by him erected, of which the refectory and adjoining buildings, as also the crypt under the choir, and the transept, are now the principal remains[2]. William of Malmesbury informs us that these works had commenced A.D. 1084, and he gives an interesting relation of the emotion of St. Wolstan, when, on their completion, the old church, erected by St. Oswald, A.D. 983, was about to be demolished[3].
PERIOD OF GOTHIC ART.
The tomb of St. Richard, bishop of Chichester, A.D. 1245—1253, has recently been "restored," and a series of small statues, representing his friends, and eminent contemporaries, have been designed in close conformity with the style of the period, as decorations of the sunken panels around the altar-tomb. The work was entrusted to the skilful hands of Mr. Edward Richardson, and it has been executed with great care and judgment. The prelate had been first interred, by his own desire, in a humble tomb in the north transept; when canonized by Pope Urban V., A.D. 1275, the remains were removed with solemn ceremony, in the presence of Edward I., Queen Eleanor, and the court, to a sumptuous sepulchre, or shrine, visited each year by numerous pilgrims and devotees, whose offerings greatly augmented the funds of the establishment. So highly in estimation were the relics of St. Richard, that the commissioners at the Reformation relinquished the purpose of destroying the shrine, from fear of popular commotion. The tomb and effigy appear to have suffered considerably when removed during the times of the Commonwealth, and they were replaced at the Restoration. In subsequent times they had been defaced by rude hands, and covered with innumerable initials or dates, commencing about 1608, incised upon the stone. It was reported that it had been disturbed about sixteen years since, but, from appearances during the recent examination, this did not seem to have been the case. On removing the effigy and stone table for repair, the grave of stone courses appeared perfect; the earth which covered the remains had sunk to the depth of several inches. On the surface lay fragments of hazel wands, or branches, such, probably, as pilgrims were accustomed to cut by the way, and suspend around the shrine, in token of zealous devotion.
- ↑ These were, as we learn from Domesday, Bricstuinus, who, in the times of the Confessor, held a moiety of the lands granted by Wolstan; Britnodus, and Aluui, being occupants of the remainder. See the statement of their recovery by the bishop, Domesday Book, f. 238. b.
- ↑ The expression is as follows:—"anno ingressionis nostre in novum monasterium, quod construxi in honore dei genetricis, primo." It would appear by the context that the church, rebuilt by Wolstan, had, as well as the monastic buildings, been completed previously to the date of his grant.
- ↑ Anglia Sacra, ii. 241.
