1894 525 to 547 - Electric Scotland

or, Northern Notes and Queries. 63
were of exceedingly feeble design. As these were and are supplied ready
made by church decorators, they are often utterly out of harmony with the
architecture and fittings of the churches they give light to, and have a
mean and tawdry appearance, contrasting with the massive and often
graceful hanging branches they displaced. Probably few of these were of
very great age, for the greed and ignorance of many of the churchwardens
of the last century were as destructive as the zeal and ignorance of church
'
'
restorers (?) of our own day. But though but few old specimens may
have survived the consecutive attacks of greedy ignorance and ignorant
zeal, it is certain that brass hanging branches were in use at an early
period, and became common when the Reformation provided services for
the people, in which they, with the help of prayer-books, could take part.
Before the Reformation, altar lights, either standards before the altars, or
candlesticks placed on them, were sufficient. After the Reformation it
became necessary to light the body of the church, and so we find from
the Churchwardens' accounts of the parish of St. Michael, Cornhill,
London, that a lanthorn was provided, evidently fitted with horn instead
of glass, to protect the candles from the draughts which abounded.
'
1564. Paide for skoring and making cleane of the greate lantern for
the church, ....... iiijd.
Paid for skoring and making cleane of the lantern
homes, ........ ijd.
Paid for a rope of xxx u
yards long to hange the greate
lanterne in ye myddeste of ye church, . . xijd.'
Sixteen years later this primitive chandelier gave place to one more
artistic :
'1580. Paide for
church,
a latten (brass) braunche and a poolye ........ for the
xxs.'
equal to about fifteen pounds of our present money. Entries for the
repair and cleaning of brass '
branches '
are common in the old accounts
of churchwardens in England. Nor were they unknown in Scotland. An
article on 'Kirk candlesticks at Montrose and Brechin,' in Willis's
Current Notes for October 1854, states: 'The earliest were made of wood;
and when metal came into use, they were made of various and elegant
designs, of which those now suspended from the roofs of the parish
churches of Montrose and Brechin are very good specimens. These are
both made of brass, and that at Montrose is about four feet in height. It
consists of a large globe and shaft surmounted by an elegant moulding of
an angel with outstretched wings resting on a dolphin. It has sixteen
branches, divided into two rows of eight each, the lower row about twentyfour
inches from the shaft, the upper about eighteen inches.' An inscription
round the globe states that it was given in 1623 by Richard
Clark, a native of Montrose, and at the time Vice-Admiral to the King of
Sweden. The Brechin chandelier is described as being somewhat smaller.
It may be said that the Dunblane gasaliers are not highly decorated perhaps
the funds available did not permit any great outlay. I have myself
seen them, and I am not alone in admiring them as of good design and
dimensions, and vastly superior to many cheap and tawdry articles which
would be out of place in a building so judiciously and harmoniously
restored by one who is well aware of the importance of minor details in
effect. A. W. CORNELIUS HALLEN.
producing a pleasing general