Old England: A Pictorial Museum (page 41/48)

Historiated Initial Letter “A”

A decorative initial capital letter “A” at the start of a chapter. This “historiated” letter A shows a woodsman, perhaps, with an axe (ax) raised over his head and a sheep at his feet. It could be Abraham sacrificing a lamb instead of his son Isaac. The man wears a cloak with a hood, and shorts, and seems [...] [more...]

1311.—Luton Church

The parish church of St. Mary is an ancient and interesting edifice (Harmsworth’s Encyc.) [more...]

1313.—Font in East Dereham Church, Norfolk

The church is dedicated to St. Nicholas, and dates from the Norman period (11th or early 12th Century). The Seven Sacrament Font shown here was made in 1488. [...] [more...]

1314.—Northleach church, Gloucestershire

Like many English churches, that at Northleach has been modified over the years. Although part of the aisle dates from the 12th century, most of the church is from the 14th and 15th centuries. [more...]

1315.—Weston Church.

An English village church, with an unusually short tower. Probably the building shown here dates from the fourteenth and fifteenth cenuries; it was extensively restored in the 1890s, some fifty or more years after this engraving was published, and looks a little different today. Or maybe I have not found the right place. Outside the church, in the [...] [more...]

1372.—Caxton. With Paper Marks.

“The famous mercer, William Caxton (Fig. 1372), came back to England with those few,and simple, and rude implements which had cost him so much wealth, labour, time, and anxiety to obtain; and then, from the precincts of Westminster Abbey, speedily issued the art of printing. And certainly it is an extraordinary fact, that the power that wass to destroy [...] [more...]

1373.—Wood-cut of a Knight. (From Caxton’s ‘Game of the Chess’)

A fifteenth-century woodcut of a knight riding a horse; he bears the Fleurs-de-Lys, the French badge. This is from an early printed book, made for a book printed at Westminster Abbey by William Caxton. [more...]

1375.—Shooting at Butts

A “butt” is an old name for a target used for longbow archery practice; the place where people practice to fire arrows is called an archery butts. The targets were usually placed on mounds of earth. [more...]