Note 246 — Chapter X · (continued 2)

Referring to these portions of screen, Mr. G. E. Jeans, author of “Murray’s Handbook to Lincolnshire,” says “Kirkstead Abbey, most valuable Early English screen, one of the earliest in England” (“Lincs. N. & Q.,” vol. ii., p. 91). Also Dr. Mansel Sympson, in a Paper on “Lincolnshire Rood Screens,” read before the Architectural Society, June, 1890, goes into further detail. He says, “It is composed of 13 bays. Each bay consists of a lancet-headed trefoil, supported by octagonal pillars, with moulded capitals and bases . . . total height 2ft. 9in. Some screen-work exists in Rochester Cathedral of exactly the same character.” And the late Mr. Bloxam gave a drawing of a similar specimen in Thurcaston Church, Leicestershire. That at Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, is not quite similar, and is 40 or 50 years later (1260); so that we may be proud of possessing, at Kirkstead, almost the oldest fragment of work, in this particular line, in the country. (“Architect. Soc. Journ.,” 1890, pp. 198, 199).